Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has seen improvement each week from his side as they look to go in to the international break with a positive result.

Despite defeat in the Carabao Cup to Premier League side Sheffield United, Mowbray felt the performance was better than in wins over Middlesbrough and Hull.

They head to West Brom tomorrow with seven points, and three consecutive clean sheets to their name, with a two week international break to follow.

Rovers have faced two recently relegated Premier League sides in their opening six matches, while in West Brom they face a second team beaten in the play-offs last season. However, their next six matches look more favourable, on paper, as Rovers aim to head in to the break on a positive note.

“The disappointing thing was to lose on the opening day against Charlton,” Mowbray said

“I think the second game away at Fulham was always going to be a tough fixture but I thought we applied ourselves pretty well.

“On the back of a really poor performance we got a result against Oldham and then managed to pick up two wins.

“I think generally it (the start) is okay. If we are going to define the first batch of games then we have to get Saturday out of the way really and if we can get a victory then it will have been a decent start.

“If we draw, I would have say fair to middling, eight points, and if we get beaten there will be room for improvement.

“The fixtures are all tough, but if you look at the first five or six fixture and then look at the next five or six, I know which ones I would prefer to be playing.

“After the international break, in my eyes, while we have to target three points in every game, there are ones to target to try and get our season up and running.

“The season isn’t defined in the first five or six games, so whatever the result on Saturday, I can see improvement in the team.

“The performance level of the side, even though we made changes on Tuesday and got beat, it was closer to where we want to be. Despite the victories against Middlesbrough and Hull I thought Tuesday’s performance was the most fluent we’ve had this season and hopefully we can build on that and continue in that vain.”

Slaven Bilic’s Baggies are unbeaten in their five league matches this season, with two wins and three draws.

Ahead of his return to one of his former clubs, Mowbray added: “West Brom are a big club, some good players, international footballers, it will be a big, expectant crowd and we have to go there and try and instil our style of play on them.

“Yet in any given moment, as we found the other night having looked at the statistics and it was a pretty one-sided affair, we got beat.

“There are no guarantees. But we have to go there and try and impose ourselves on them but they’ll be doing the same on us and let’s see who comes out on top.”