Harry Chapman won’t be leaving Rovers on loan - but Tony Mowbray says the winger ‘has to look at himself’ in his bid to earn a first-team spot.

Chapman will play for the Under-23s at Brighton tonight having made just one substitute appearance for the senior side this season.

It will be a third consecutive outing for the Academy side for the 21-year-old who is yet to feature in a Championship matchday squad, and played just three times since a January switch from Middlesbrough.

Mowbray says Chapman knows what is expected of him if he is to force his way in to the first-team plans having taken the decision to stay at Ewood Park rather than seek a loan move before Monday’s deadline.

“I have had a good long chat with Harry. We need to kick-start his career and get him going and up to speed,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“I know the supporters like Harry Chapman and the reason he’s here is because I like him, but he has to get going, he has to get up to speed, he has to understand how our club works and the work ethic that’s required.

“It’s down to him. I feel as though it’s ‘blame the manager that Harry Chapman isn’t playing’, but Harry Chapman has to look at himself really and get going, get himself moving and up to speed, up to gear.

“There was potentially an opportunity for him to go out on loan to get going and to get started and to show another team that he could create and score goals, beat full-backs, put the ball in the box and other stuff he’s here to try and do.

“I think between us we’ve decided that he’s going to stay and see if he can try and get in our team, in our squad.

“There’s always a difference between how players feel they’re doing and how the manager feels they’re doing and at the moment there’s a little divide there between what he thinks he’s doing and what I think he’s doing.

“At the end of the day he has to please me and I think we’ve come to that point.”

Chapman spent the League One promotion season on loan at Ewood Park, becoming a hit with supporters, but two long-term hamstring injuries restricted him to just 16 appearances.

Only one of those came as a starter however, and he has just four league starts to his name, the last of those being almost two years ago.

Mowbray hopes the penny will drop with Chapman who has plenty of competition in the forward areas in his bid for more regular game-time.

But having pushed hard to bring him in on a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee seven months ago, Mowbray knows there is plenty of potential in Chapman.

“I like Harry Chapman, he’s here because I signed him and I pushed Middlesbrough really hard to sign Chapman, even beyond where I should,” he said.

“I was like a dog with a bone making sure we got him back in but he now has to show me that he wants to be part of this team but he has to be better than (Joe) Rothwell, (Stewart) Downing, (Adam) Armstrong, whoever else you want to throw in to that left and right-hand side position and at this moment he’s not.

“At this moment there are things he has to keep working at and developing and if he needs to play minutes then he has to play for our Under-23s and show me every day in training that he’s the best player.

“And I’m not daft. If he does then he’ll get in our team and in our squad and it’s down to him.

“The team deserves 11 players on the pitch working hard for each other and that’s where Harry Chapman is.

“To the fans who are waiting, and I get a little lad every home game with ‘Chapman’ on the back of his shirt asking ‘where’s Harry today?’ I understand, and once he’s up to speed and doing all the things he does best then he’ll be around our team.”