Tony Mowbray isn’t a man to get carried away, even despite Rovers taking 19 points from the last 24 available.

Rovers chalked up a fourth away win of the campaign with an impressive 2-0 victory at Bristol City courtesy of Bradley Johnson’s early strike and a late Adam Armstrong goal.

The win moved Rovers to within one point of the top six and continued their excellent run since the November international break.

And while Mowbray, who made six changes for the visit to Ashton Gate, was delighted with the victory, he isn’t looking too far ahead.

He said: “I felt we handled them well, but I am certainly not getting carried away.

“It’s only a couple of months ago that we were on a poor run and now that we have won five games in a short period there is no cause to get over-excited.

“We knew it would be tough because Bristol City were looking to bounce back from a midweek home defeat.

“That’s what they are capable of. But we were prepared, scored an early goal we worked on in training and worked hard throughout the game.”

There was a flashpoint at half-time in which Robins boss Lee Johnson became involved in an altercation with a member of the Rovers backroom team who had punched the ball away moments before the whistle went.

While Johnson branded the behaviour of Rovers’ staff as ‘outrageous’, Mowbray made light of the incident.

“There was a lot of emotion in the first half, which spilled over onto the sidelines at times. There was a bit of a fracas at half time, but I saw nothing over-physical,” he added.

Rovers backed up a midweek point at Swansea with victory against the side who started the day in fourth.

The players had stayed south after the Swansea game on Wednesday to make most of the preparation time, rather than travelling back to East Lancashire.

The squad will now be afforded some time off, with their game against Wigan Athletic at Ewood Park moved to Monday, December 23.

“We’ve put in a lot of hard work. These are a lot of young guys who are married and have families, and they’ve been living in hotels these last few days,” the boss told the club website.

“I’m delighted for the lads that we’ve taken some good points from these two away games.

“We managed the game pretty well in the second half and there have been plenty of players who have given me a decision to make for the next game.

“We said at half time that we need to quieten their crowd and be better with the ball, which I thought we were in the second half.

“I said to Adam that he’d go on and get a chance, and he did, and finished it well.”

Meanwhile, there was no spot in the Bristol City squad for former Rovers loanee Kasey Palmer.

The attacking midfielder spent the first half of last season at Ewood Park, on loan from Chelsea, before switching to Bristol City in January.

That move was made permanent in the summer for around £3.5m, but he has started just one Championship game since the end of October.

And Lee Johnson told Bristol Live: I don’t think he’s performed like he could, and I look at myself before I look at him, why am I failing? Why are we failing to get the best out of him?

“It was a straight up decision really, (Sammie) Szmodics or Kasey Palmer and Szmodics has been performing well, he’s been consistent as an individual, as a human and as a trainer and I felt that it was probably the right thing to do given the fact that Kasey came on the other day, gave his first five balls away, gave the free kick away for the goal and then played an unbelievable cut pass that we nearly scored from.”