With life off the pitch serving him well, Lewis Holtby is hoping to back that up with results in Rovers' upcoming schedule. 

Holtby has settled in quickly to life at Rovers after his move in September and got married during the recent international break.

The 29-year-old scored on his first start against Huddersfield last month but admits a run of one win in their last seven matches has been disappointing.

But he knows that a run of nine games in the space of 36 days offers them the chance to add some impetus to their season. 

He explained: “Outside of the pitch, everything is good, just the points we need to collect and hopefully with the home games coming up we can push on from here.

“The nine games I’ve witnessed there’s been a lot where we’ve deserved more.

“In every game we could have nicked more points but things just haven’t quite gone in our favour.

“We need to learn from that rapidly because we see ourselves as a team who should be higher in the table than where we are now. It’s down to hard work, and the winter time is the best, and quickest, way to collect points.

“Win these two home games, which will be hard, we have a big chance to give ourselves a boost for this close period of games.”

Holtby arrived as a free agent, having left Hamburg in the summer. Even though he’s fluent in English, he admits the language barrier has been tricky at times with club staff, and some team-mates.

“It was very quick getting married and organising everything, but we feel very good here in Lancashire and here at this club,” he added.

“The Lancashire accent, it’s just the employees of the club that’s really hard for me. Most of the lads in the team, there are a lot of players from the north east who are hard to understand at times.

“But it’s been really bob on.

“The club have been very nice to me, helping me with whatever they can, and it’s been easy for me to settle in.”