TONY Mowbray is expecting the League One title fight to go right to the wire and hopes a fully-fit squad can give his side the edge.

Rovers host Bury on Monday night currently third in the table. Shrewsbury went top in midweek but should they fail to beat in-form Rotherham tomorrow then Rovers would go top, for 24 hours at least, with a win over the Shakers.

Second-placed Wigan Athletic are in FA Cup action this weekend. The Latics have been long-term leaders but back-to-back defeats have allowed Paul Hurst’s Shrews to hit the front and Mowbray, who is close to welcoming Marcus Antonsson and Ben Gladwin back into the fold, knows there will be plenty more twists and turns over the final few months.

“I am pretty sure that will be the case,” he said. “We have to strive to be a consistent team, and yet everybody is, as Wigan have found out in recent weeks.

“It is a big game when you come to Ewood Park or go to play Wigan.

“Shrewsbury have sort of slipped under that radar a little bit, everyone expected them to fall away and yet they have kept it going.

“Now they have hit the top hopefully they become more of a target for teams to focus in on. It is very competitive, we all have to strive for that consistency. What I have found in this league is that every team is difficult.

“For me it is just about winning the games now, whether we go top, whether we are second or whether we are third.

“We can only affect Wigan when we play them, we can’t affect Shrewsbury any more other than to apply pressure by winning football matches and ensure they feel what it is like to go into a game to get a result to maintain their position.

“But we should be enjoying the challenge. We have got a strong squad, I think it is getting more healthy. Hopefully at a time when we need it the most we will have a squad that can help us in the final push.”

Asked if Shrewsbury might start to feel the pressure now they are leading the way, Mowbray said: “We will find out. What I would say about Shrewsbury is that they have had an amazing season.

“They have got huge respect from the rest of the league, they were down the other end of the table last year.

“He (Hurst) recruited exceptionally well in the summer. He has got some very athletic footballers, some players with lots of energy and time will tell whether they can sustain it.

“It appears to me that they don’t mind people talking about them falling away because they are using that as a motivational tool to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“The more we talk about them potentially falling away the more it is probably helping them.”

Mowbray’s men entertain a Bury side who have improved since Ryan Lowe took charge. The Shakers are on a five-game unbeaten run but remain 10 points from safety.

Most would have Monday’s televised clash as a home banker but Mowbray is wary of the threat posed by teams battling against the drop.

He said: “What I do feel is that it doesn’t matter whether you are playing the teams at the top or the teams at the bottom, as we have found with Oldham, teams can give you a really really hard game.

“They have got, if anything, more to fight for than teams around the middle of the table who are thinking maybe the play-offs are too far away. The teams that are in the bottom four or five or six know they have to give everything in every game and sometimes those games are more difficult.”

He added: “I think the skill factor in this league, the margins are very small, all teams are pretty similar but if you can find a cause to fight for.

“Being in the bottom four you have an extra cause to work that fraction harder and you get a little more intensity to your game even if you don’t realise you are doing it.

“The teams at the bottom end at this time of year can find a little bit extra.”