Tony Mowbray has tried to stay in a ‘middle ground’ despite the up and down emotions of Rovers supporters within the last week.

There was frustration and disappointment after a 4-1 defeat at Preston, anger following the 3-1 loss at Wigan before satisfaction as Rovers got back to their best in a 4-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

Mowbray knows his side didn’t become a bad team overnight despite suffering back to back defeats for the first time in 15 months, but admitted they needed to address certain things after the derby defeats.

An open and honest clear the air meeting came prior to the Wednesday win and Rovers will now look to get those two disappointing away days out of their system when they travel to Middlesbrough tomorrow.

Mowbray said: “My job isn’t to get too high or too low, my job is to manage the team and the expectations.

“I understand we live in a social media world where everyone can make comments and reactions and however many thousands of people react off their comments and it makes for a debate. I know your job (the media’s) is to follow those lines and see if there’s a positivity or negativity around things.

“I have to stay in a middle ground and I knew that we were still a good team but needed to readdress a few things.

“We have talked openly about the last week to get back to the levels we know we can play at.”

Rovers moved back in to the top 10 with victory last weekend but face five of the current top six in the next month, starting at the Riverside Stadium against fourth place Boro.

Mowbray has been realistic about Rovers’ aims for the season but has welcomed the extra preparation time in between games before the Christmas rush sees them play four times between December 22 and January 1.

“Let’s see what this weekend brings, go to the Riverside and try and compete with a team who have big expectations this year and see if we can give them problems as we have done with two or three of the bigger teams in the league,” said Mowbray who returns to the Riverside for the first time as a manager since being sacked in October 2013.

“I want to develop this side so we can have an expectation as big as theirs. But we have just come out of League One and at this moment in time we’re trying to compete with them and we’re 20 games in and are trying to stay on their coat-tails.

“It’s good to have week to week games before the mad rush around Boxing Day so we will prepare properly and try and find a performance.”