Tony Mowbray believes Rovers will become a team that can challenge for promotion out of the Championship – but equally that they have fallen short on the expectations he set for this season.

That’s why the manager says he understands the frustration of supporters who have seen their side slip to 15th in the table on the back of six defeats in seven matches.

Mowbray acknowledges that run of form is one that 'managers don’t really survive’ but he hopes owners Venky’s see, and believe in, ‘the bigger picture’ of how he is trying to move the club forward.

That is a possession-based style that Mowbray feels is the best way to get out of the division, but it is now one point from the last 21 available to Rovers who had expected to be at least challenging for a play-off spot at this stage of the season.

“That’s seven we haven’t won a game in now, but the previous month we won three out of four and drew the other,” Mowbray said.

“I’m not happy because our ambition was to try and get into the top six this year, yet we can’t do that now.

“I’m really frustrated, yet I like the team, I believe the teams that get out of this division are the ones who dominate possession, create the most chances, score goals, and I think we’re on that journey.

“As you could see, we’re trying to be a possession-based team and when we get it right, we will be at the top of this league at some stage.

“Whether that journey will continue for me personally at this club, we’ll have to wait and see, because it’s difficult, I’ve been in the game 40 years, you can’t lose six out of seven.  Managers don’t really survive.

“But if people see the bigger picture of where we’re trying to go, we’ll get it right, if we get recruitment right, because we’ve got a lot of loan players, five loan players, so they will go back to their parent clubs.

“So we have to recruit well, a little bit of investment, to get recruitment right.

“We’ve signed Harry Pickering from Crewe who is an amazing left back and he’s gone back on loan because we’ve got Barry Douglas here from Leeds.

“We’re trying to build a club, yet I fully understand the frustration on social of the supporters, because I built the expectation that we could make the top six this year and we’ve fallen short.

“I understand that, I have to live with the consequences, and only the owners will make the decision on whether we’re going in the right direction or not.”

Rovers’ up and down form has seen them enjoy unbeaten months in November and January, as well as six points out of nine in September to start the season.

But four defeats in October and December and five in March has taken away the momentum that Rovers had built, leaving them firmly inside the bottom half with 33 games played.

“January, we went unbeaten, won three out of four and drew the other one,” Mowbray told TalkSport.

“We didn’t win a game in February and going into March I hoped our fortunes would change, generally that’s the level of performance from us, but the goals we were scoring early season have dried up a little bit.

“I could say that’s because we’ve lost a bit of experience, there’s no Bradley Johnson or Lewis Holtby out there, some experienced footballers are unavailable for our team.

“But I’m still very proud of the group, they’re giving everything they’ve got, we’ve come to a top six team and dominated for the vast majority of the match.”