Rovers’ season has been a statistical anomaly, rating so highly on so many metrics, but under-delivering in terms of wins, points and league table.

Possession, and a more ball-orientated approach has been the mantra throughout this season, more control giving Rovers a greater chance of winning matches the viewpoint of manager Tony Mowbray.

Yet their results haven’t backed up that theory, a concession Mowbray himself has made,

"I want to dominate the ball, pepper the opposition’s goal, score more goals and yet, over the last few months, that way of playing, hasn’t gotten us very far," he said. 

But the league table offers more of a perspective of where the manager is coming from.

Of the top five sides in the division, four are in the top six when it comes to the highest average possession stats. The bottom three in the league table are in the bottom four of the possession rankings.

However, only Norwich City have more possession than Rovers, while sitting in fourth spot are Huddersfield Town, three points, and places, behind Mowbray’s side in the league standings.

Delving deeper into Rovers’ figures, their average possession across their 42 Championship matches this season is 55.7 per cent.

Yet the 2-1 win over Derby County on Friday night was the seventh time in which they have won a match this season with less than that figure. Five have seen them have less of the ball than the opposition, and the only other win this season with an average possession of less than Friday’s 43.1 was the 37.4 per cent they had in the reverse fixture with Derby in September when they ran the Rams ragged at Pride Park.

So are Rovers better when they have less possession? Do they carry a greater threat on the counter-attack?

The ball carrying skills of Joe Rothwell, the pace of Adam Armstrong, their struggles of breaking sides down when facing up to two banks of four may well suggest so.

During their recent poor run, possession stats were 65 against Preston (2-1 defeat), Nottingham Forest (1-0 defeat), Reading (1-0 defeat), while in December they had 69 and 72 per cent respectively, but came away with just one point, from games against Stoke City and Sheffield Wednesday.

Yet in all of those games, Rovers conceded first and were forced to do the running against teams quite happy to sit on the lead they had.

However equally, wins over Wycombe (69.4), Coventry City (66.2) and Preston (74.5) skew their average possession figure, having spent much of those matches playing against 10 men for long periods.

Then we can look at the make-up of the squad. In midfield, Rovers have players such as Tom Trybull, Stewart Downing and Lewis Holtby who are happy to dictate the play at a slower tempo, whereas Lewis Travis is at his best when he’s on the front foot closing people down, and Joe Rothwell, when carrying the ball forward at pace.

Equally, in attack, Armstrong, Ben Brereton, Sam Gallagher and Tyrhys Dolan’s skill sets are all better suited when facing the opposition goal and with the ball moving at a greater intensity.

Rovers lacked mobility in the first half against Derby, their midfield trio off the pace, and it wasn’t until the injection of the forward-thinking Rothwell that they started to take the game more to the visitors.

Armstrong came alive, and in the space of 15 seconds half minutes, could have had himself a hat-trick.

That’s not to say Rovers can’t dominate the ball and look a threat, but you would be hard pressed to say they were at their fluent best for some of their wins, not least against Rotherham United, Middlesbrough, Luton Town and the first half against Derby.

Having different ways to win is a positive, yet the statistics would suggest that Rovers’ preferred method hasn’t always brought their best results.

Possession percentages in Rovers’ 13 wins: Wycombe 69.4, Derby 37.4, Coventry 66.2, QPR 51, PNE 75, Barnsley 62.3, Millwall 55.1, Rotherham 67.4, Birmingham 45.3, Middlesbrough 47.8, Luton 57.4, Millwall 49.3, Derby 43.1