Corry Evans will hope his performance on his return to the team is enough to convince club boss Tony Mowbray to start him again when Rovers travel to Stoke City tomorrow afternoon.

There he will also look to catch the eye of national team boss Michael O’Neill, who was last month named as successor to Nathan Jones at the bet365 Stadium.

O’Neill will continue in his role as Northern Ireland boss for their Euro 2020 play-off campaign in March, where Evans, a regular for his country, will be aiming to feature.

The 29-year-old, of late, has found it easier to get in to his national team side than he has his club’s, with the Brentford appearing just a fourth start of the season.

But such was his display alongside Lewis Travis, he will be confident of keeping his place, even despite Mowbray’s known rotation.

And he knows Rovers will be in for a tough challenge against a Stoke side who although second bottom, have won two of their three wins under O’Neill.

“It’ll be the first time that I’ll be playing in front of both my managers in one game,” Evans said.

“It’ll be nice to see him. He’s started very well despite losing in midweek (to Cardiff). It will be a tough game for us.

“I know the way he likes to set his team up and how he wants to play, so I know it’ll be a difficult test for us.

“He’s proven that he can sort teams out with us at Northern Ireland. His attention to detail, his teams are always hard to play against, look after the ball, ask questions of you and put balls in the box and give you a real tough game.

“I think in the long run he’ll be an excellent appointment for Stoke.

“He usually comes to me in in the big games and it’s nice to have a manager who puts faith in you like that.

“It gives you a lot of confidence.”

Rovers won a crazy game at the bet365 Stadium last season, 3-0 up after an impressive 80 minutes, only to concede twice in the space of a minute before Saido Berahino missed from the spot as they held on for a 2-0 win.

They have lost each of their last four away matches, but Evans hopes a trio of home wins in November will mean Rovers can travel in confidence as they look to turn their fortunes on the road around.

He added: “We won their last season, but it’s going to be a difficult test.

“They won last minute at home and I’m sure their fans will be up for it and we’ll see how it goes.

“But the three wins at home has set us up nicely to go away from home.”

Rovers were good value for their win over in-form Brentford on Wednesday night, with Evans’ display in the middle of the park typifying what was good about Rovers.

“We knew what type of game it would be against a Brentford team who are a good footballing side,” he said.

“We had to be right at it both in and out of possession and we did that really well, keeping the clean sheet as well.

“I think we could have scored more, but David (Raya) made some really good saves.

“We were excellent, kept the ball really well at times, moved it, and when we won it back we broke really fast.

“They have some good attacking players who always ask questions of you, moving into pockets of space and attempting to get the ball in behind.

“But I thought we stayed together as a team, we were tight and compact and defended our box really well.

The win came courtesy of Bradley Dack’s third goal in two games, taking him to nine for the season.

“Dacky’s sense of getting into the right areas and arriving in the box is a big reason for getting so many goals for someone who plays in the number 10 position,” Evans explained.  “He gets in the six-yard box and it’s a typical Bradley Dack finish.”