Tony Mowbray hailed the character of his Rovers side and believes that is why they overcame Leeds on Saturday.

The Rovers boss revealed how he built up the strengths of Marcelo Bielsa’s team to get a reaction from his players.

The 'warriors' in his side were given special recognition by Mowbray as they allow the more technically gifted players the chance to shine.

He said: “I talk to them about going to war, shine their shields, draw their swords out and go to war really and that’s what this team can do.

“It’s not the most technical team in the world and I’ve had much more technical football teams than this and yet they give you everything they’ve got and a bit more every week.

Mowbray spoke of the disappointment in the dressing room at half time as Rovers conceded with the last kick of the first half.

“After the first half performance we deserved to be in front. It was really difficult at half time. We could have been two or three up at half time.”

The 54-year-old also highlighted how made his players over anticipate the running power of Leeds.

“If anything, I overplayed Leeds’ athleticism and quality today to almost put an added edge to the anticipation of the game,” Mowbray aded.

“I built Leeds up as some superhuman, athletic quality football team and they rose to the challenge and got the job done.”

As well as a greater work ethic, Rovers also carried more of a threat, with man-of-the-match Adam Armstrong having six shots throughout the course of the 90 minutes.

And keen to highlight the threats within his team, Mowbray said: “You’ve got the quality of Bradley Dack, the power of a Graham and the speed of an Armstrong. We’ve got players who can hurt the opposition.

“When you’ve got them warriors behind who’re putting their bodies on the line, winning headers and blocking shots, you’ve got yourself a chance.

“They’ve obviously got a world class coach whose got them playing really attractive football, but as I’ve said to this team all season, when you play against better teams it doesn’t mean you have to succumb and give in.

“You’ve got to fight and stand up and be counted and we did that.”

In Friday’s training session, Mowbray said his side worked on the corners that brought them the two goals.

“You come up with game plans and you get two days, Thursday, Friday to pull it together and I am just so pleased for the players really.

“The set-pieces were something we worked really hard on Friday morning. Pontus Jansson is a monster of a man and (Liam) Cooper is very dominant.

“You take them two out of the middle of the box and we felt they were a bit vulnerable, which is what happened.

“Whoever was getting marked by those two played wide and for the first goal Graham came powering through the middle and scored. The second goal, Lenihan had the same.”