Adam Armstrong joked that changing his cereal of choice had been behind his goalscoring form – but the frontman believes the focus in pre-season is allowing Rovers to flourish in the final third.

Rovers have now scored 18 goals in eight Championship fixtures, with Armstrong netting two more in the defeat to Reading which took him to the top of the league’s scoring charts.

A goal in the Carabao Cup to kick off the season means the 23-year-old has now scored 24 times in his last 38 appearances and he will look to score for a third consecutive match when Rovers travel to Swansea City tomorrow.

Despite their impressive return in front of goal, Rovers have taken just 10 points from their opening eight games, with the Royals reverse their fourth defeat already this season.

Armstrong feels the goals shipped in midweek were easily preventable, and says the squad are doing everything necessary in training in a bid to improve.

He said: “We knew in pre-season that we had to create more chances and score more goals and we’ve been doing that.

“It’s something we’ve worked on, we’re creating chances, we’re on the front foot, pressing and you get chances from that and we’ve been putting some of those away.

“We’ve had a really good start with the goals and let’s hope we can continue with that, but top it off with three points at the end.

“We’re creating chances which is the important thing, if we weren’t we wouldn’t be happy.

“It’s something I’ve been working on, getting into the right areas in the box, making the right runs and it paid off the other night.

“But it’s not just about me, it’s a shame we didn’t get three points and we’ve been working hard in training.”

Reading scored with four of their five attempts on goal, with Rovers converting two of their 16 shots.

They trailed after just eight seconds on Wednesday, but Armstrong quickly equalised with a fine first-time finish from a Harvey Elliott cross, before a rare header from a Joe Rankin-Costello cross brought his side back into the game midway through the second half.

Asked if he’d done anything differently in 2020, having now scored 21 goals in this calendar year, Armstrong joked: “Changed my cereal in the morning.

“I’ve just been working hard, the lads have been brilliant, the front three I’ve been playing with have been excellent so let’s hope we can keep creating those chances and seeing teams off.

“We’re working hard every day to become even better.

“We’ve had a tough run but if you watch the games I think we’ve played really well and been quite unlucky.”

Armstrong walked away as the club’s player of the season in 2019/20 and also finished as top scorer, netting 17 times in all .

They included a host of long-range strikes, with eight outside the box, none further out than his effort on Rovers’ last trip to south Wales, scoring from 45 yards against Cardiff in July.

“I think it was my first career header so it was nice to get that one off the mark, hopefully I can get a lot more,” Armstrong said of his second goal on Wednesday.

“If I don’t make the run then it doesn’t became a good pass, so I need to keep making those runs, get in the right areas and hopefully they will keep coming.”