Tony Mowbray believes the task to get out of the Championship will only get harder – but feels having an identity is one way Rovers can plug the gap to teams with parachute payments.

Rovers saw their top six prospects drift away in a winless February and waited until game number 42, and victory over Derby County, to reach the regarded safety mark of 50 points as their season fell away.

Mowbray has continued to stress that having an identity to their play is crucial in the club pushing forward, not least as teams with the parachute payments following relegation from the Premier League continue to dominate.

He has tried to implement that this season, but with limited success, sitting 15th ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday.

But the manager stressed: “We’re a bit of a way off at the minute, we’ve fallen away in the second half of the season, but my belief is the only way this club will ever get out of this league is you have an identity.”

Mowbray has continued to stand by his possession-based approach, and beliefs, despite a run of just two wins in 16 matches that has seen Rovers slide down the table.

Norwich City have already confirmed their promotion back to the Premier League, while Watford look well set to join them, with improving Bournemouth in the top six mix.

Mowbray says the task of bridging that gap will only continue to grow, but feels putting building blocks in place is the only way to succeed.

He added: “For us, you can pick all the holes that you want, I feel the performance level of the team has been good generally for the majority, but I know that supporters generally want their team to win, whatever it takes.

“I believe that if you have a structure, an identity to the way you play, you can grow and keep adding in transfer windows and if you can get the right players then you can give yourselves a much better chance, rather than being a team that just fights for 46 games and win some, lose some and drawn some. You have to find consistency in the way you play.

“Three teams will come down with £100m from the Premier League, and it looks like the three teams that came down last year will go back up and is that what the league is going to be?”

Rovers have four games remaining to clock up as many points as possible having now reached 50, but can’t reach last season’s tally of 63.

Mowbray knows the consequences that come for managers whose sides don’t meet their expectation, however, he isn’t alone in struggling to make Rovers a top six force in the division.

“If you lose enough games then you change the manager and then the next manager comes in, changes what he doesn’t like, brings something else in, he loses some games and then he goes and then another manager comes in, changes some players,” he added.

“How many years have we been in this division, and what’s the highest position? Two or three of those years they will have had parachute payments to give them a really good chance of getting back.”