A defiant and impassioned Tony Mowbray says he doesn’t ‘sit in fear’ of his position as he looks to arrest Rovers’ poor run against Coventry City this afternoon.

Rovers have lost each of their last five matches, their worst since relegation from the Premier League, and look to win their first points in February against the Sky Blues.

Mowbray says he is aware of the criticism he has received during the five-game winless run but says it won’t change his approach, and is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to turn things around.

That could be helped today by the return from injury of captain Darragh Lenihan who has missed defeats to Nottingham Forest and Watford with a rib injury.

“I don’t sit here fighting for my job, I don’t sit here in fear, I sit here wanting to win the next football match and put the best team we can on that grass,” Mowbray said. “I’m here, seven in the morning until seven at night, working, doing what I do, leaving no stone unturned.”

Mowbray was asked about the criticism he’s faced on the back of a run that has seen Rovers drop out of play-off contention and into the bottom half of the table.

He said: “I am aware, but I’m not aware, I don’t see the flak, I don’t feel the flak, I don’t hear the flak, so keep throwing it, it doesn’t affect me. It affects my team because I’m sure those young lads in the dressing room see it, hear it, read it, and they’ll feel it.

“It’s only affecting the team, it’s not affecting me.

“I prepare the team, I coach the team, I’ve had young lads in my office and spoken to them about life and what they need to do and how they need to work, what’s going to make them better and give them a better chance to achieve the things they want to achieve in life and football.

“I just try and win the next game, that’s my life.  And then when I can I go home and see my family, the people who care about me, the people who love me, the people who don’t have any criticism because they know they have a father and a husband who loves them and someone who gives them time when he can, twice a week generally, two days out of seven I see my family.

“The rest I’m here, seven in the morning until seven at night, working, doing what I do, leaving no stone unturned.

“I understand that I live in a world where you have to win games and if we don’t win enough I leave that to the owners to decide, if someone else is going to do the job then that’s fine, it’s not an issue for me.

“I just love football, I love teams, I love the competition, I thrive on it, but if it doesn’t work for whatever reason in this extraordinary year that we’ve all had, then no problem.”

The manager spoke after Wednesday’s defeat to Watford how he wouldn’t be a burden on the club, and if the club’s owners felt he was ‘the problem’ then they would let him know.

Until then, Mowbray says he will continue to do all he can with the options available to him, and accepted decisions around his team selection will never be universally popular.

But he says he will continue to be honest with supporters about the decisions he makes.

“At the moment I’m the one guy who gets the chance to pick the team and I feel very honoured to do it for my Blackburn Rovers, a world famous name in football,” he explained.

“The day I don’t, I’ll be very proud and I’ll talk to my grandkids about managing this amazing club called Blackburn Rovers and it was brilliant.

“I don’t live in fear of anything, I love my family, I love my work, I try hard every single day and that’s the guy I am.

“I think it’s the guy I have been from the day I walked in, I hope the fans know that they have a person who doesn’t pull the wool over their eyes, doesn’t tell them lies, doesn’t try and con them on something, I sit here every week and tell them as it is I think.”

Ahead of the visit of his former club Coventry City, he added: “I’m not self-protective, if I’m a burden on the club then the owners need to do something about it if they feel that’s the case. If they feel I’m a hardworking guy with integrity and honesty and is doing the very best with what we’ve got at the moment with the players we’ve got then let’s keep going because I’ve talked about a journey.

“I believe that we can get to the Premier League, if it’s not this year then the next year after, and recruitment has to be good, we have to get all of that right, we have to do it properly, you have to build a club, it isn’t going to happen by just changing this one and just hope that on a whim and a prayer that someone else can get the right formula.

“That’s my positive mind, my positive world, let’s win today, who’s to say we don’t win the next five games.”