Tony Mowbray is looking forward to his Rovers side, and the season, ‘settling down’ as he eyes a climb up the Championship table.

Victory over QPR before the international break was only their second in eight matches, but moved them up five places, and into the top half, in a tightly-contested league.

Mowbray has set sights on the top six this term, but says the table will take care of itself should Rovers put together a run he feels they’re capable of.

The return of Thomas Kaminski, Bradley Johnson and Adam Armstrong at the weekend was welcomed by the manager who hopes to have even more players competing for a spot in the side after the break.

And in turn, he feels that will see them continue their upward trajectory.

“We have to believe that in the next 11 games we will win a lot of them and we don’t need to worry about the table until we come into the last run of games,” Mowbray said.

“I’m trying to talk to them about how we can be a powerful team in this league and win lots of matches.

“That’s how we feel. The starting point in every manager’s mind is with a fully fit squad, but the balance we’ve had hasn’t been quite right.

“We all believe that we’re going to have a really exciting season.”

Midfielder Johnson, named Championship player of the month in September, is one of several players within the squad who have been forced to self-isolate, while Aynsley Pears and Lewis Holtby were withdrawn at the weekend because of illness.

Barry Douglas and Amari’i Bell will be back available for the next Championship fixture, after self-isolating, and Mowbray feels the absentees have had a big effect on results.

Rovers won two of their opening three matches, but took just five points from the next seven games, prior to the QPR victory. But feeling better going into a break he felt his side needed, Mowbray is hoping to emerge much stronger.

He added: “I do think the results have turned negatively since we hit that four or five Covid issues and we have got four or five injuries. I think we’ve also played some of the top teams.

“I’m really looking forward to this team settling down, the season feeling some kind of normality.

“Whether it ever does I don’t know because the games are coming thick and fast and you’re probably going to continuously pick up injuries and it might always be without a balance, but I’m hoping somewhere down the line when this team settles down that there’s a lot more 4-0 victories than there’s 4-2 defeats.”