TONY Mowbray has urged his Rovers side to ‘exploit the anxiety’ surrounding tomorrow’s opponents Bury.

But the Rovers boss is warning his side to expect a reaction from the hosts, who go into the game following an FA Cup exit to non-league Woking which brought a scathing assessment from their chairman Stewart Day.

Day branded the performance in Tuesday’s FA Cup replay defeat as unacceptable and says they lacked ‘fight, passion and desire’.

Bottom of League One, the managerless Shakers are without a league win since October 14, and Mowbray wants his side to take the initiative in tomorrow’s game.

He said: “Someone was telling me that their chairman has made a statement and challenged them.

“We’ll be playing a team desperate to do well, to win every 50/50 and to show their supporters how much it means to them.

“They won’t roll over and we have to be ready for that environment.

“There will be a reaction I’m sure.

“But we have to manage that, every loose ball they will be fully committed.

“It’s not a game for feint hearts. I don’t want to be talking afterwards about them wanting it more than us because they got every 50/50.

“We have to be ready, we know it’s coming as here we are talking about it so we have to make sure we’re ready and their anxiety to do well turns in to a lack of cohesion. We have to try and prey on that if we can and put them on the backfoot.”

Bury made a number of high profile signings in the summer, with Tom Aldred, Stephen Dawson, Jermaine Beckford and Harry Bunn all making the switch to Gigg Lane.

However, they have won just three of their opening 17 league games, though did beat Rovers in their Checkatrade Trophy group games last month.

Mowbray added: “We saw in the Checkatrade that if you allow them to pass it around then they can, they have some good players.

“We were terrible on that night but they moved the ball around the pitch pretty well.

“It’s a bit of a mystery to me as to why they are where they are in the league

“I know they spent a few quid in the summer, they have a big squad with some quality footballers.

“We have to try and exploit the situation, the anxiety and whenever that manifests in a high intensity performance that we have to match then that will be the case and hopefully we can get the right result.”