Ben Brereton hopes he can evolve to become Rovers’ No.9 and says he can only learn from top scorer Adam Armstrong.

Brereton netted his sixth of the season in the win over Huddersfield Town before setting up goal number 25 of an excellent season for Armstrong in the 5-2 victory.

Sam Gallagher set up Brereton’s goal before getting on the scoresheet himself as the front three enjoyed an excellent afternoon as Rovers got back to winning ways.

Both Brereton and Gallagher, brought in for combined £11m fees, would ideally prefer to play as the central striker, a role Armstrong has taken on this season, but the 22-year-old says he may need to bide his time further.

He said: “I like playing left and right, I’ve always been a striker in my younger years but making the step to the first-team sometimes you have to sit back and let other people do your job and hopefully one day I can be a No.9.”

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Rovers attacker Ben Brereton says the team aren’t where they should be and says lessons must be learned from a season which has tailed off to a dramatic extent.

An unbeaten January moved Rovers back into play-off contention after a difficult end to 2020, and hopes were high as players began to return from injury that they could finally make that jump into the top six.

What transpired was a desperate run of results in February, in which they picked up just one point, while victory over Huddersfield Town last time out was only a third in 18 games.

They head to Rotherham United in 15th, having been as low as 17th in recent weeks, far short of the top six expectation set by manager Tony Mowbray at the start of the season.

But with this season now almost over, Brereton says the focus has to be now on ensuring it doesn’t happen again and they can last the pace in 2021/22.

“We started off well as a team, we had a bad spell but we’ve got through that now and hopefully we can take that into next season and hopefully next season we can be more consistent,” he said.

“We all know that, we know we need to be better as team, get more wins, stay together as a team and be more consistent.

“We’re all disappointed that we’re not where we should be, but it’s football it happens, and next season we have to be better, come in with a positive mindset and crack on.

“We’ve got a young squad, the experience for the young lads who have played a lot, the experience has been really good so hopefully we can learn from our mistakes this season and be more consistent next season.”

Brereton is a naturally positive and upbeat character, and says that’s why he’s only looking to the future.

“You can learn from it, I know that I have and the rest of the lads have,” he said.

“It’s football but we all know that we can be better.”

Although there is nothing riding on the remaining two games for Rovers in terms of challenging for the play-offs or looking to avoid relegation, having won so few games in recent weeks, Brereton says that is a big incentive for them.

Back-to-back home victories has moved them to 53 points, meaning they can’t reach either the 60 or 63 mark they have notched up in the last two campaigns.

But against a Rotherham United side fighting for their lives in a bid to beat the drop, the 22-year-old says Rovers will meet the challenge head on.

The former Nottingham Forest attacker added: “The mindset we’ve got is that we go into it as a game that we need to win.

“We’ve not had many wins recently so we need to get as many as we can to take into next season.

“They need to win so they’ll come out aggressive and fast and we just have to handle ourselves and try and get a win again.”

 With 28 starts to his name this season, that is more than Brereton had managed in either of his two previous seasons combined following his £6m move in 2018. He held the last ever-present record before injury struck against Millwall in December, and although the injury wasn’t as bad as first feared, missing just five matches, Brereton said that came at just the wrong time.

“I was scoring goals, getting assists, and we were getting wins and I was really enjoying my football.

“The injury came at a bad time for me, but that’s part and parcel of football for me so I get on with it.

“These last two games we’ve got to win to take that into that next season, pre-season we all need to work hard and get fit.”