Tony Mowbray enjoyed watching his side in the first half, but was equally impressed with their battling qualities in the second, as they beat QPR at Ewood Park.

Goals from Adam Armstrong and Darragh Lenihan had Rovers 2-1 up at the break. And while that was the end of the scoring, Mowbray’s side had to dig deep in the second half as they stretched their unbeaten home record to 10 games.

Rovers moved the ball well in the first half, and could have scored more than the two goals they did, but worked hard in the second period to restrict Rangers’ opportunities as they struggled to turn their possession in to chances.

“I think we played against a good side. They are a well-coached team,” Mowbray said.

“We decided to go for them in the first half, play on the front foot and take the initiative.

“I think we did enough in the first half to be more than one goal up, had a lot of shots at goal, a lot of efforts and good play.

“I thought it was a good football match in the first half. Then Joe Rothwell came off at half time and I think that took away our options of playing inbetween the lines.

“At 2-1 we decided to put a more defensive-minded player on and I don’t recall them having too many efforts at our goal, but they did have lots of the ball.

“We sat a bit deeper, stayed compact and tried to break away, but didn’t enough in the second half.

“We will put the points in the bag and move on.”

Armstrong, making his 100th appearance for the club, made it nine for the season in all competitions, and fourth in seven games, when curling from 25 yards.

He has been used as a central striker in recent weeks, with Mowbray happy with how his side are functioning with the 22-year-old leading the line.

He added: “It doesn’t surprise me with Adam, sometimes the boys will stop and clap him in training when he bends them in the top corner.

“For the last two-and-a-half years we played Graham and Dack up front and then Armstrong off the left. He comes off the left and bends things in like that.

“He has been playing up front these last few games and can buy space for the likes of Holtby and Rothwell to play in. We can play through the lines of the opposition and first half I thought we were pretty good and I enjoyed watching us in the first half.

“We have been in Portugal in trying to stop Eze and Chair who are very talented individuals in this league, and Osayi-Samuel was something we needed to address. They pushed us back, but I thought we were solid and we’re happy with the points.”

Lenihan and defensive partner Tosin Adarabioyo, who had two good chances to score himself early in the second half, were caught out for the QPR goal, scored by Jordan Hugill, but stood strong under pressure in the second half.

“They are different players with different qualities,” Mowbray said of his defensive duo.

“Adarabioyo can play the ball between the lines and is amazing to watch at times with how fast he is and how he can wrap his legs around things and get infront of people.

“Lenihan is a warrior who plays on the front, wants to win every header and every tackle, I like our central defensive pairing at the minute.

“Nyambe is looking strong, he pushed them back. He needs to work on his final delivery of course but I think they look solid.

“The distances of the team, they found it difficult to get through and the defensive set-up was good.

“Against good teams you have to do the work and we went to Portugal and it hopefully paid off.”