Tony Mowbray hopes re-charged Rovers will come flying out of the blocks against Oldham Athletic

Mowbray felt his side were in need of a break after defeat at Plymouth Argyle last weekend in which they failed to reach their usual intensity.

But hoping his players will be recharged ahead of the Oldham game, Mowbray said: “This week has been a pretty down week, there has been a lot of rest, they have some days off, the training days have been pretty good.

“Because the players are coming back on the grass that has increased the excitement and intensity of that.

“It hasn’t been a normal week, the players have had a couple of extra days off and that’s my call really.

“Some days you have to recharge the batteries and understand the reasons you are giving them a rest, only so that they can burst out of the blocks and show everyone how dynamic we can be and how exciting we can be.

“Hopefully the next few teams feel the energy levels and the quality we possess and we can get back to winning ways pretty quickly.

“We’re looking forward to the weekend.”

Mowbray admitted in the wake of the game that he should have made more than the one change he did for the visit to Home Park where Rovers lost their long unbeaten record. 

He added: “Every time you don’t win a football match you give yourself a hard time as a manager.

“I wouldn’t be critical of the team, I thought they give everything they had, yet I felt as if we couldn’t reach the intensity levels we’d been showing and I thought it was a tough shift last week.

“I thought the effort they put in to the games was really special at some stages and I think they found it really difficult in that third game.

“In hindsight as I said after the game I would’ve probably picked a different team if I would have known that was the physical output we were going to get from that third game.

“It’s a lesson for me to learn as we move forward, particularly as the options increase for us to pick different players.”