Damien Johnson was pleased his players’ hard work was rewarded with a first Premier League 2 win of the season.

Early goals from Jacob Davenport and Jack Evans saw Rovers Under-23s see off the late challenge of Liverpool at Leyland.

Rovers finished the game with 10 men, after Evans was shown a second yellow card, as Liverpool twice hit the bar through Adam Lewis free kicks.

They had reduced the arrears midway through the second half through Michael Virtue, with Dan Butterworth missing the chance to make the game safe in injury time as he saw his penalty save.

Ryan Nyambe came through 65 minutes as he completes his comeback from a hamstring injury, while Jacob Davenport played the full 90 minutes in his third appearance for the Under-23s.

After holding out for a  2-1 win, their first since promotion, Johnson said: “I’m pleased for the boys that we have won a game.

“Our performances have been improving. We won the cup game the other day, but in the league we’ve found wins very hard to come by.

“It’s a difficult league.

“We made it hard work. We started the game really well, scored two good goals, and I think we stopped doing what we were good at.

“I think there’s a tendency when you do go goals up you start dropping and get a bit deeper.

“These teams are full of good talented footballers and given too much time they can hurt you.

“We found it difficult at times but I think we showed good character, resilience and with a bit more quality and being more clinical we could have got the third which would have made things more comfortable.

“Overall, I’m pleased for the players as I felt they deserved it.”

Johnson said his players demonstrated the kind of characteristics that first team boss Tony Mowbray looks for from his squad.

They were under the cosh for much of the second half, but showed good character to see the game out, a win which moved them off the bottom of the table.

He said: “I keep talking to the players, reading what you write about what the gaffer is saying after the games, and he keeps talking about the resilience and the work ethic of the team and the character, the bravery.

“They are the common themes each week about the characteristics of his team and the qualities he admires.

“I have talked about us showing that, we needed to start showing more of that in this league, and in the second half we showed that.

“That was pleasing to see it through and we worked it out to get over the line.”