Tony Mowbray felt Rovers preyed on the anxiety of Stoke City to record a third successive victory.

Sam Gallagher came up with a late winner as Rovers made it nine points from three games within seven days to move up to 11th in the Championship.

Bradley Dack put Rovers ahead in the first half, firing home from close range, before the Potters equalised 10 minutes from time as they forced the ball over the line from a corner.

Rovers came under pressure, but the defensive pairing of Darragh Lenihan and Tosin Adarabioyo stood up well, with Mowbray describing their pair’s contribution as ‘immense’.

“First and foremost we’re disappointed with their goal, they weren’t creating chance after chance,” Mowbray said.

“They were putting of a lot of high balls in to our box, but I thought Tosin and Lenihan were immense at heading the ball away.

“We’ve had situations earlier this season where we came up against a direct team and didn’t head any balls out and lost a game from 2-0 up.

“They stood up and were counted and got the job done.

“We got our rewards, I thought we got what we deserved.

“But I could sense their atmosphere, the stadium was vibrating when they got back level, but there had been a lot of anxiety for most of the game.

“I think their fans expect Stoke City to get promotion back to the Premier League and have a real go but they find themselves in the bottom three. I’m sure they’re struggling with that.

“But when it’s going well you can feel a Premier League crowd right behind them. I think they have to stick together.

“It’s not for me to tell Stoke City fans what to do, but you could feel when they equalised the roof almost came off the stadium.

“For a lot of the game there was a lot of anxiety.”

Rovers backed up the home wins over Brentford and Barnsley with a first away victory since September 21, ending a run of four successive defeats on the road.

“Delighted with the points. I thought we controlled the first half and played how we wanted to,” the boss added.

“We were decent with the ball and I think you could feel the anxiety in the stadium.

“On the flip side when they equalised you could feel the power of their stadium and maybe their adrenaline, they over-committed to get a winner in the last five minutes and that gave us an opportunity to go and get a winner ourselves.

“It was a good result for us, you can see from the performance level the shoots of this becoming a different team who can keep the ball a bit better and break away.

“I’m delighted for the players, they deserve reward for all the effort they have put in week in, week out.

“It’s not easy to change styles, not be quite as direct as we might have been in the past and I’m delighted they’re getting some rewards.”

Rovers were denied a clean sheet as Christian Walton punched a right wing corner against one of his own defenders and in to the back of the net.

Mowbray said: “It was a flat corner, missed the first man and the goalie has punched it on to the back of Corry or Bradley and it’s dribbled in, it’s a shocker really.

“But it doesn’t matter, we went up the other end and got the winner and I’m delighted for Sam of course.

“They will enjoy their weekend and we’ll prepare for another home game and keep going.”