Tony Mowbray can see similarities between Stoke City and his Rovers team of last year as he hopes to catch the Potters on a day off.

Stoke, relegated from the Premier League last season, were heavily fancied to win promotion at the first attempt but have won only two of their first eight games.

Twelve months ago Rovers were adapting to life in a new league and lost four of their opening 11 matches, before a terrific run of form saw them to promotion.

Rovers head to the Potteries two points above Rowett’s side in the table, but Mowbray is well aware of the challenge his side will face.

“It’s interesting in this league when you play teams,” he said. “We have Stoke coming and Wigan went there and won 3-0 and they (Stoke) have been adapting as we did last year.

“We lost our first two games in League One. Sometimes on the back of a relegation you have to adapt and can be a case of when you play these teams.

“If you play them really early you might catch them out, but maybe now they are starting to find their feet, starting to realise what’s required in this division with the work ethic. And with the quality they have they can win games. We’ll find out after Saturday whether or not it’s a good time to play Stoke.

“They have some high quality players, Joe Allen being one, Ryan Shawcross, a lot of players who have played in the Premier League, some real experience, a lot of quality and (Ryan) Woods in midfield, they have some good footballers and it is another test for us.

“The players are looking forward to the challenge and pitting their wits against them. Let’s go and enjoy the occasion and see if we can pick up some points.”

Mowbray added: “I talked last season about the meetings we had at the end of our relegation season and there was a bit of unrest in the dressing room with players, probably from their advisors, saying ‘you don’t want to be in League One, it’s not good for your career’.

“Maybe they’re having a bit of that. There’s some really high profile players at that football club who probably don’t want to be playing in the Championship.”

Rowett is well versed in the Championship after spells with Birmingham and Derby.

“I think the manager knows all about the Championship and what it takes to try and get out of it,” added Mowbray.

“I think he’s going through that adaptation period and knows they can have a good time and win games and enjoy the season, but this is the new standard you have to get used to.

“I’m pretty sure they will be there or thereabouts. We are playing teams with big expectations and Stoke fall in to that but that’s why it’s a good test for us.”