Corry Evans hailed the impact of Rovers’ young duo Joe Nuttall and Lewis Travis after a chalking up a third successive league victory.

Rovers moved up to 10th with a 2-0 home win over Ipswich Town, continuing a winning start to 2019 in the Championship.

Nuttall came off the bench to score with his first touch, his second goal in two games, replacing Danny Graham who had tucked home his 10th of the season from the penalty spot.

Travis again impressed in the middle of the pitch alongside Evans, and having both looked destined to go out on loan, the 21-year-olds now look a firm fixture in Tony Mowbray’s squad.

“Joe was in the right place at the right time as he always seems to be. I was delighted for him,” Evans said.

“He’s been out the picture for the last few months, back with the Under-23s, him and Travis, but they have both come in made a real impact.

“They have probably saved the manager going out and spending a few quid trying to go out and buy some players. We have a good youth system here and we’re reaping the rewards.”

On Travis, who has now played every minute of Rovers’ last six matches, the Northern Ireland international added: “He’s been fantastic in the games and he’s a great lad to have around. He works tremendously hard for the team and has quality on the ball.

“There’s a lot of competition for places and that’s what the manager will want, everyone pushing each other in training to try and keep their place in the team.”

Evans shook off an ankle injury, picked up in the Millwall win, to regain his place after missing the FA Cup replay defeat to Newcastle United.

Rovers were much the better team against bottom side Ipswich, scoring twice in quick succession to kill the game off.

A run of three successive wins to start 2019 followed a difficult Christmas period for Rovers as they won just five points from six December matches.

“The games came thick and fast and we played a number of the top six teams. We were a bit unfortunate with the results but we have a lot of quality in the squad to be able to go on a run.

“We had a difficult December over the Christmas period where we played some good teams and were unlucky not to get some points on the board.

“But it’s been nice to win three games in a row and move up to 10th.”

Rovers have now kept back-to-back clean sheets for the first time since August after 2-0 wins over Millwall and now Ipswich. That has been some turnaround after conceding 20 games in their previous nine league fixtures.

Ipswich have won just three times all season, and only once on the road, but Evans knows the difficulties these games can sometimes present.

“From previous experience they are potential banana skins when you’re up against teams down the bottom,” he said.

“Sometimes you can get in the mindset of thinking you’re guaranteed to win the game but we were professional enough to not let that happen.

“Millwall was a horrible game but we managed to grind it and out score the two goals. Here we were a bit more dominant in our play and showed some good quality for the goals.”