Tony Mowbray was in charge at Coventry City when Adam Armstrong scored his first senior hat-trick in January 2016. More than four years later Mowbray insists the striker ‘loves scoring goals’.

He has scored twice on 11 occasions, five in a Rovers shirt, but made sure of his hat-trick in the dying stages. But coming off disappointed that he didn’t score a late chance to get his fourth shows Mowbray the 23-year-old’s hunger for scoring is bigger than ever.

Armstrong now has 15 league goals in 2020, and finished as Rovers’ leading marksman with 17, and looks well on the way already to another productive campaign with five in four matches.

“I think it was pretty much what he does to be honest. He loves scoring goals,” Mowbray said.

“I think he was pretty disappointed that he didn't get away from the guy who brought him down for the sending off and he didn't finish the chance where he ran through one-on-one and the keeper made a great save.

“He wants to score goals, he's very single-minded, and yet he's such a good lad. When I put him on the wing for two years, he didn't moan, he kept cutting in on his right foot and bending it into the top corner.

“Now he's getting his chance down the middle, he's always tried to show me that's what he is, that's where he plays.”

Armstrong was on target in the Carabao Cup win against Doncaster, and the opening day defeat at Bournemouth where Rovers dominated the ball, but came out on the wrong end of the result.

He was left on the bench for the return to his boyhood club Newcastle in midweek, such was the importance of having him available for the weekend visit of Wycombe.

That call was vindicated as the Chairboys had no answer for Armstrong, but the team performance was a big plus for the manager whose side kept their first clean sheet since February.

“He's a bit disappointed after the game, he should have scored some more goals,” he added.

“I think it's great that we got the balance right, the defenders did their jobs and the quality of the goals in the first half was just fantastic.

"The clinical way in which we could break away into the spaces and finish, which was probably missing at Newcastle, we talked long and hard this week about strikers having to be more clinical and they were, although we might be a little disappointed that we didn't score more.”