Tony Mowbray took a rare glance at the Championship table on Monday - and made several observations, though not about his team.

Rovers are up to seventh, out of the top six only on goal difference, after a fifth win of the season against Leeds on Saturday.

But interesting Mowbray more was that no side is averaging two points a game, a mark he set his side to reach promotion last term.

Given the tightness of the league, with four points separating Derby in fifth and QPR in 16th, Mowbray’s feet are firmly on the floor.

He said: “I don’t generally look at the league but I did yesterday morning and saw that no team is accruing two points a game which is quite amazing because normally you have one or two teams with more than that.

“Anyone can beat anyone in this division, so that’s why we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground.

“We have our next two games against teams who were in the Premier League last season with some really talented players and deep squads so we have to keep testing ourselves and if we do lose football matches then we know we have given everything on the night. Teams will have to earn it and beat us.”

On where his team sit, Mowbray said: “We’re just in the middle of a group of teams who can all beat each other and it’s very hard to predict who can win the games.

“You’d have to look at how many points we’re off the bottom as well. We could lose our two games this week and be in the bottom half. The league is really tight from top to bottom.

“There’s no-one getting tailed off at one end and there’s no-one running away with it at the top.”

No bar has been set on Rovers’ ambitions for this season, though a top 10 finish would represent a successful first campaign back at this level.

On the opening 13 games, Mowbray said: “It’s a start. You only have to look at last season, Millwall were down there at the start and then seven or eight wins around Christmas pushed them towards the top six. It can work the other way of course.

“For us we have given ourselves a platform. The plan is to work hard in every game and see how this season goes and try and consolidate. I don’t think we need to have any other ambition than being competitive in every game.”