Tony Mowbray believes a move to a more possession-based style will pay off for Rovers in the long-term but accepts his side will be judged on results, and end product.

Rovers enjoyed 55 and 60 per cent in the respective away games at Wigan and Barnsley, but failed to score in both matches as they slipped to 2-0 defeats in a blow to their play-off hopes.

Manager Mowbray had been optimistic that Rovers could go in to their match with Leeds United on the back of three successive victories after the re-start, but successive defeats on the road has made it a ‘difficult time’ around the Brockhall training ground.

Having seen their deficit to the play-off spots go from one point to five in the space of a week, Mowbray concedes it will take a consistent run of victories to get Rovers back in to the picture.

And with top two Leeds United and West Brom to come at Ewood in the next week, and a trip to sixth-placed Cardiff City in between, he knows that will be no easy feat.

But he believes in what he’s asking of his players, having moved to a 4-3-3 formation in each of the last three matches.

“I have to be positive and talk about the positives, but the negatives are there infront of our eyes,” he said.

“I keep talking about growing the club, is this the way we want to see the team play? Do we want to be dominant with the ball, have more possession, be around the opposition box, controlling games, keeping them away from our goal as much as we can? It’s where we want to take this club.

“I’ve managed clubs in the past and won this league with a team (West Brom in 2007/08) that dominated the ball, scored goals, hardly defended because the other team couldn’t get over the halfway line.

“It’s a process. It’s been a big jump from how we got out of League One, and you can’t compare League One to the Championship, as you can’t compare the Championship to the Premier League because the jump is so big.

“Are the signs okay? I think there’s been more domination of the ball, more in the opposition half, I think that’s been substantial in both of those games, but no-one wants to hear that.

“Possession or end product? End product all day. You have to win games, that’s the job, I’ve said that to young coaches that I speak to, you have to find a way to win.

“We’re trying to find a way to win and we believe this is the way for us to win on a consistent basis going forward.

“We can be a team that plays direct and fights for every ball, make life difficult for the opposition, and make every game 50-50, but hopefully longer term this is going to make the percentage much better than 50-50.

Rovers kicked off the re-start with victory over Bristol City, and will be hoping a return to Ewood this weekend can spark their season back in to life.

Missed chances, particularly against Barnsley, proved decisive in the back-to-back defeats that dealt a blow to Rovers’ play-off hopes.

And the manager says Rovers will now need to dust themselves down in preparation of the visit of Marcelo Bielsa’s high fliers.

“We got three points against Bristol City which was a great start followed by two away games against teams who are fighting for their lives,” he added.

“When you’re playing teams at the bottom end of the table you believe your quality will come out on top. We dominated both games generally, possession wise, and chances wise probably, but found a way to lose both games.

“That’s left us really hollow, really difficult emotionally to deal with. A week ago we were a point off the play-offs and thought ‘this could be our year’.

“We’re sitting here pretty disappointed, but have to brush ourselves down, we have a different test this weekend, we’ve got Leeds United coming, a team we managed to beat at home last season, so we have to bounce back and try and do that again this season.

“We always knew that we would have to hit a run of form, but believed that we could win the first three games and then really test ourselves against the teams at the top and really test our credentials.

“On balance of play, we could have won the three games, we had to chances to get our noses in front in both of the last two matches, yet found a way not to do that and missed some great opportunities and lost the games.

“We have to try and keep believing that what we’re doing is right, keep pushing on, and we have to go on a run now in some fixtures, with the top two teams in our next two home games and then a trip to Cardiff City who are flying as well.

“It seems as though we’ve hit all the form teams. But we will go on to this game with fire in our belly and try and get a positive result which might kickstart something for us.

“I think we’re more than capable of winning back-to-back matches in this division and if we can do that it puts us back in the equation, but that’s something we’re going to have to do.”