Tony Mowbray believes the Liverpool friendly will prove to be a useful exercise for his side with just over a week to go until the re-start of the Championship season.

Rovers were beaten 6-0, the Reds running in three unanswered goals in either half, of Thursday’s Anfield friendly.

It was a first run-out for Rovers since returning to training last month, a week behind the Premier League champions-to-be.

The game offered Mowbray the chance to hand minutes to Lewis Holtby and Corry Evans, who haven’t played since February and January respectively, while a number of his young players will have gained plenty from playing against Premier League opposition.

And despite the result, Mowbray says his side can take a lot from the match.

He told the club website: “It’s good for our team because we spent a lot of time out of possession, we had to chase a lot and the physical data from that game was really high, which is just what we wanted 10 days before the big kick-off.

“It was a competitive game of football and I spoke to Jurgen after the game who understands that it wasn’t just a friendly match.

“We’re both getting ready, we’re both intense and there certainly were benefits of playing the game for us.”

Liverpool had played a practice match at Anfield last week as they step up their preparations for the Merseyside derby against Everton on their return to action next week.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are running away with the Premier League and could claim the title as early as next week.

And despite the heavy defeat, Mowbray wasn’t to be too hard on his players.

He added: “An opportunity to play Liverpool is something that you can’t turn down, in my opinion.

“You can sit there, be clever and think about them being the best team in the world and it could knock confidence, but the mindset of the players is that they would all want to go and play at Anfield, they’d all want to test themselves against the best.

“The likes of Virgil van Dijk, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane all played and it was a great experience for us. I think it highlighted to us where the very best are.

“We all saw that game and I have to be careful that I don’t judge my own players off the standard of that opposition, because they are a pressing machine.

“You can’t play your own game because Liverpool don’t let you have three passes.

“It’s amazing to watch the machine that they are.”

Rovers took a near full squad with them to Anfield, with Derrick Williams and Amari'i Bell the two players to miss out.