Tony Mowbray delivered a stinging post-match debrief of the 3-1 defeat at Wigan Athletic, describing the performance as the worst of his time in charge.

Mowbray admits his side are facing one the biggest tests of his tenure after shipping seven goals in back-to-back defeats to Preston and Wigan.

The boss apologised to the travelling 2,158 fans who saw their side beaten by goals from Gary Roberts, James Vaughan and Callum McManaman, the latter coming after a Dan Burn own goal looked to have handed Rovers a way back in to the game.

A visibly upset Mowbray said: “I’ve told the players that’s the worst I’ve seen since I’ve arrived. It’s unacceptable. It takes a lot for me to get angry with them but I don’t know where it came from. I apologise to the fans who travelled tonight.

“We got bullied and couldn’t deal with their directness.

“Everything was wrong, with the ball, without the ball, I didn’t recognise the team. We have to get back to basics.

“We will all be in tomorrow morning, watch it back, and talk through it.”

McManaman’s goal, four minutes from time, came just 60 seconds after Rovers reduced the arrears to one goal.

But Mowbray added: “We wouldn’t have deserved anything, we weren’t good enough from start to finish.

“It’s probably one of the first big tests since I’ve been here, let’s see if we can put it right and this group of players is willing to get back to basics and be good at what we are.

“I can’t defend it, it’s there in black and white.

“There’s been no reason for it, I have to find the answers and we’ll all be in in the morning, talking it through, and let’s try and break it down.

“Let’s be careful we don’t go overboard, this is the Championship, we’ve just been promoted from League One and we’ve lost back-to-back games away from home.

“It’s not an easy league, especially if you’ve just come out of League One and it takes time to adapt. The frustration was we’ve been good away from home but the last two performances have been way below the standards set.”

Mowbray revealed he didn’t see the incident which saw a first minute booking for James Vaughan for a foul on Jack Rodwell.

But the boss was disappointed that his players didn’t fight their corner against a Wigan side who put in several strong challenges throughout the evening.

“I think they set their stall out pretty early on and left their mark,” he said.

“We needed to stand up to it and that’s why there were some angry stuff going off in the dressing room. This is what we talk about, their spirit and togetherness.

“When you’re in a fight with your mate you have to both be swinging and that was a bit lacking.”

Rovers made four changes, two of those enforced, and made another half-time alteration as Derrick Williams replaced Danny Graham.

All three substitutes were made, as Mowbray continues to try and find the right formula, and said: “And there might be another four at the weekend until we get it right.

“Some players deserve to be given an opportunity.

“I didn’t feel as though there were many changes but there will be opportunities for players.

“That’s not me making them for the sake of it, because that would be silly. This team have a lot of credit in the bank but they have to get back to basics and do what we’re good at.

“We’ve had four 1-0 wins this season and we have to get back to that and be really hard to play against.

“Let’s push the reset button and be ready to go again.”

Mowbray, who welcomes the input of his players, admits there was anger among the squad in the changing room after the match.

He said: “That’s the first angry words I’ve seen among our footballers in 20 months.

“They were confrontational with each other, which is good to a point, and my job is to keep a rein on it and make sure they use that frustration and anger in the right manner to find a performance.”