Tony Mowbray says the pairing of Richie Smallwood and Corry Evans 'understand the expectations' of what he's looking for from his central midfielders.

Evans put a in man-of-the-match display in the win against his former club Hull City on Saturday while Smallwood will bring up 50 consecutive league starts for Rovers should he be involved against Reading on Wednesday.

Evans and Smallwood is the pairing Mowbray has gone with since the Northern Ireland international returned to fitness in March, and have started each of the opening three league games together.

Rovers have kept clean sheets in their last two, in contrast to 18 shots they allowed in the 5-1 cup win at Carlisle when the pair were rested.

And pleased with their contributions, the boss told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I think the two of them in midfield are important players for our team.

“Against Carlisle, without Richie and Corry in there, there wasn’t the same positional understanding of how to play central midfield how I ask them to.

“We conceded way too many chances on our goal against Carlisle because of the balance of that team and the players who I tried in those positions hadn’t gone through the work of how we play.

“Evans and Smallwood understand the expectations, they know the job and you could see at half-time that their shirts and shorts were stuck to their bodies with sweat. It was like tracing paper.

“It is unbelievable the effort and work they put in to the football match.

“I can only say how fantastic they have been and are.

“I feel it’s an area of the pitch we potentially need to look at and strengthen as well.

“I know we’ve signed some midfield players, Jacob (Davenport) is obviously injured at the moment, and we have some other types, so let’s see what the next few weeks brings and if we can keep this team moving forward.”