Tony Mowbray says he remains positive about what he’s seeing from his side despite a fourth consecutive defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Rovers were edged out by a first half Alex Mighten strike that deflected past Thomas Kaminski, while Adam Armstrong saw a second half penalty saved by Brice Samba.

That meant a fourth successive loss for Rovers now who are only in the Championship’s top half because of goal difference.

Asked about how concerned he was by a fourth straight defeat, Mowbray said: “I’ve talked about my views on football, I’m performance related, I think the performance was really decent and if we play like that most weeks then we’ll win football matches.

“Brentford have lost their last three and they’re right up there, it’s this league, the team is the team, you know the team, I think the average of that team was 22, we had an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old playing at centre half, we had a 17-year-old in midfield, and I thought they were very good and generally dominated proceedings, but it wasn’t to be.”

Rovers saw plenty of the ball at the City Ground, Armstrong denied by the post in the first half, while he had their best chance after the break from the spot after Ryan Nyambe was brought down.

Despite their dominance of territory, a combination of a lack of players in the box, and poor final delivery, saw Forest able to hang on, the hosts themselves twice denied by the woodwork across the 90 minutes.

“Football is a balance, you have to have defenders who can defend and you have to some men at the back who can head balls out and strikers who can score goals,” Mowbray added.

“You have to have midfielders who can tackle and pass, that’s what football is, it’s not just about the strikers, it’s about everything, you have to have a balance and at this moment we have four first choice defenders out injured, we played two loan young boys in our team and we missed a few opportunities to pick the right pass to score a few goals and it wasn’t to be.”

Rovers were without Darragh Lenihan with a rib issue, while Barry Douglas was only fit enough to be on the bench.

They lost Sam Gallagher and Nyambe to injuries during the game, and with four defenders out, as well as midfielders Bradley Johnson, Lewis Holtby and Tom Trybull, Mowbray says those have hit Rovers hard.

But the Rovers boss says he will continue to keep working to improve the group of players available until he’s told otherwise.

“I think every team would say that I would imagine. Liverpool, I know they’re in the Premier League and irrelevant to us, but they are, if you’re going to hold up a team who are missing their stars that allowed them to win the European Cup, and win the Premier League, they haven’t got them,” Mowbray said of the injuries within his ranks.

“They’re playing with another team and it’s not quite good enough.

“Our best team I think we would be really threatening this league, but we haven’t had the best team, probably all year, but that’s okay, but football is about squads and about recruitment and the individuals, the balance of a team, where you have strength, where you have talent, someone who can pick the right pass, where you have someone who can kill teams off and score the goals, where you have defenders who can head the crosses out. That’s the balance of football.

“At the moment we’re four centre halves down, we’re actually a lot of midfield players down and we have to keep going until we’re told not to and that they (the owners) don’t like the fact we’ve lost four on the bounce, that’s okay.

“But I felt as though I enjoyed watching the team today, I stood on the side and enjoyed watching their drive, their intensity, their fight, and on another day we could have won that game.”