Tony Mowbray will be watching the Champions League, rather than the Championship, tonight, but admits results elsewhere could offer an incentive to his side when they host Stoke City tomorrow.

Five of the seven teams above Rovers in the table are in action tonight, which could leave the gap to the play-off spots anywhere from five to eight points.

Rovers were able to apply pressure to the other teams in the play-off mix with victory over Hull City two weeks ago, before Preston and Bristol City responded with wins over their own.

Tomorrow night it will be the turn of Rovers to either back up their rivals’ results, or take advantage, as they host Stoke City 24 hours after Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Preston and Bristol City are all in action.

“I think any benefit is of course if they don’t get a result it gives us an extra incentive to make sure we get a positive result. If they get a positive result then it gives us an extra incentive not to fall further behind by winning our game,” Mowbray said.

“I’ve always said I can’t affect their games, I won’t worry about that, I’ll be watching the Champions League on the tele. At the end of the game I’ll flick over to see what the scores were.

“While I won’t be watching the Championship games, I’ll be watching the Champions League, I will see how they get on later on.

“I know a lot of my staff are going to those games, I try and keep my brain focused on our job, on our team and not lose too much perspective by worrying about Preston North End or Bristol City.

“I worry about them when I play them.

“That’s my mentality, let’s try and win our games, that’s what we can affect and starting with Stoke we have to be intense, hungry, ready, positive and believe we can win a game of football at home.”

Mowbray may not be watching tonight’s matches, but members of his coaching staff will, particularly Bristol City at Huddersfield, with the Robins due at Ewood Park on March 14.

But for the manager, he is only concerned by Stoke and the challenge they pose.

“I think every manager does it differently. Some will watch every game they can, every team, I try and focus on our team,” Mowbray said.

“I spend hours and hours on my laptop watching the opposition, if we’re playing them at home I will tend to watch their recent away matches, and vice versa.

“I could easily go and watch these games but instead I’ll send one of my staff because I want to focus on my team. I don’t want to be thinking about Bristol City when we haven’t even played Stoke yet.

“My mind is focused on Stoke, how we might set up, the players we might play against, I don’t want to concern myself with Bristol City, my staff can do that.

“Then when it comes to the week we play them and the build-up to that game we’ll be talking about the night they went to watch them at Huddersfield and how did they play, what did they play, did they play a high line or defend deep, did they put balls in the box etc?

“At this moment Stoke is the most important game for us and I don’t want to take my mind of that.”