The Rovers players will enjoy a seven week break before preparations begin in earnest for life in the Championship.

But that could have been as few as four had they had to come through an entire play-off campaign, with the League One final not scheduled until Sunday, May 27. That will be over a month since Rovers clinched promotion at Doncaster.

Boss Tony Mowbray admits that promotion via a Wembley win would have been an amazing experience for all concerned, though he’s more than satisfied that Rovers’ fate was secured by automatic promotion.

Shrewsbury Town, who had been in the top two spots for much of the season, started their play-off campaign yesterday, winning 1-0 at Charlton, while the second League One semi-final between Scunthorpe and Rotherham is on Saturday.

Mowbray enjoyed a successful play-off campaign with Ipswich in 1999/2000, winning promotion to the Premier League as a player, against Barnsley.

But he suffered heartache as a manager with West Brom in the Championship final of 2006/07 when they were beaten by Derby.

“They were all scenarios that we had worked on,” Mowbray said of a possible play-off campaign with Rovers.

“The players would have less than four weeks off before they were starting pre-season again.

“That’s quite scary really.

“But having been promoted through the play-offs, it’s probably the best way to be promoted, it’s at Wembley with 40,000 – 50,000 fans. I remember coming back on a team bus and stopping at a pub and the beer garden being mobbed with supporters, it was unbelievable.

“If you’re going to get promoted then it’s not a bad way to do it.

“But I have also lost in play-off finals and it’s pretty desperate, you get no rest or recovery, you start again and everyone is deflated, it’s hard to kick-start your team the following year.”

The Rovers players broke up from club duty on Tuesday and will join back up on June 24.

Mowbray will now set about looking to build a side capable of challenging in the second tier, which will include conversations with the clubs of his four loanees.

He added: “Thankfully that’s not for us (the play-offs), the players will get a good rest. We will then rebuild or add to help the current team.

“We have got some loan players who will go back to their parent clubs and we will maybe have some discussions with some of them and put a squad together we feel can be competitive in the next league.”