Tony Mowbray believes his young attackers will improve as the season goes on - and feels they offer him plenty of flexibility at the top end of the pitch.

Mowbray felt his side lacked some attacking ‘nous’ to find an elusive goal in the 0-0 draw against 10-man Cardiff City last weekend, but pointed to the age of his attacking players as possible reason why.

Rovers have opted against bringing in any experience attacking options to their squad following the departures of Danny Graham and Dominic Samuel, though Tyrhys Dolan has proven to be something of a find after arriving on a free transfer.

Sam Gallagher made his first appearance of the season when coming off the bench at the weekend, but at 25 is the oldest of Rovers’ current attacking options, until 26-year-old Bradley Dack returns from injury.

Mowbray’s men are the Championship’s top scorers, and after three successive clean sheets, he said: “We’ve got some talented young strikers and they will get better as the season unfolds, I’m sure.

“If we can keep clean sheets at one end and score goals in the other, that’s not a bad formula.”

Tyrhys Dolan, along with Ben Brereton and Adam Armstrong, have featured in all six matches this season, with Gallagher having been sidelined since pre-season.

He stepped up his return from a groin problem with minutes in a behind closed doors fixture with Huddersfield on Monday in which he hit the post, and had a goal disallowed, coming through 63 minutes after half an hour at the weekend.

Armstrong is already up and running with six this season, with Dolan also having scored twice, but Rovers will be looking for Gallagher and Brereton to improve significantly on their goal tallies this term.

Even before the long-awaited return of Dack, Rovers’ top scorer in his first two seasons at the club, Mowbray feels he has the attacking power, and flexibility, to cause teams problems this season.

“Gallagher’s now fit and we will be able to switch things around, look for weaknesses in the opposition,” he explained.

“I think Armstrong can play wide either side or down the middle, Gallagher can play wide either side or down the middle and I think Dolan can play wide either side or down the middle, and Brereton.

“I think we have got options, and my job is to identify which game will be suited to each individual. That’s what we’ll try and do.”