‘It’s up to me to pick the right team’ said Tony Mowbray as he admits he has a number of good options to choose from following Rovers’ home draw with Nottingham Forest.

Lewis Holtby has been bright off the bench in his three cameo appearances since signing on a free transfer and is pushing hard for a start, as is Joe Rothwell who returned to the fold against Forest after missing the last two matches with illness.

Mowbray opted to recall Danny Graham in attack for what was just  his third league start of the season, but the experienced frontman struggled to have an impact before being replaced by Dominic Samuel in the closing stages.

With Tosin Adarabioyo back from injury, the likes of Ryan Nyambe and Amari’i Bell weren’t part of the matchday squad, with Ben Brereton among those currently ruled out.

On his options, Mowbray admitted: “It’s a difficult balance.

“Graham hasn’t played in a few weeks and you have to give him enough time on the pitch because you’re hoping that one of the chances falls to him or a cross in to the box and he takes it.

“It’s how long you keep him going.

“Samuel came on and gave us a new injection, nearly scored with his first touch. Holtby came on and looks a top quality footballer, rarely gives it away, picks the right pass.

“Options are there, we just have to try and pick the right team to win games.”

On Holtby, who replaced Dack and played as a No.10 in the closing stages, he added: “We need to have as many quality footballers as we can and then it’s up to me to pick the right team.

“He’s an option instead of Dack as well. He played central and is also very potent coming in off the right on his left foot, playing off Dack, joining in and sliding in strikers on reverse passes.

“I just have to find the balance in each game to find the right balance on the pitch.”

The final 15 minutes of the weekend defeat to Luton were of particular disappointment to Mowbray.

And while the boss felt Rovers came on strong in the closing stages against Forest, he feels there are plenty of things still to work on to improve their goal return, particularly at Ewood Park.

Rovers have found the net six times in six home matches, scoring more than once on just one occasion, the 2-0 win over Millwall last month.

They were on the front foot against Forest, and had a better ratio of shots on target from their attempts at goal than against Luton, but Mowbray is still looking for more.

“I think it was better,” the Rovers boss said of the approach to the closing stages.

“There were a lot of crosses going in to their box that we didn’t get on the end of.

“It felt like dozens of crosses that went in to their box on Saturday that we didn’t get on the end of so there are still things to work on.

“What type of goals are we going to score?

“We don’t tower over players and score bullet headers in the middle of the six yard box, very rarely, but we can get behind teams.

“We’ve worked hard on our retention of the ball to get overloads and things fizzing across the six yard box as we saw a few times in the first half.

“We didn’t manage to get people in at the back stick for tap-ins.

“We will keep going, a work in progress, new players, a new team and I think we’ll get better and stronger as the season goes on.”