Tony Mowbray says the hard work won’t stop for the Rovers players upon their return from a week-long training camp in Scotland.

Rovers took a 31-man squad to Stirling last week before the squad returned to Brockhall to continue their preparations for the upcoming season.

The club don’t have a public friendly until next weekend’s trip to Bradford City, but behind closed doors matches are planned before then which Mowbray will hope to use more of his senior players.

Thomas Kaminski, Darragh Lenihan and Adam Armstrong were among the senior players that didn’t feature at AFC Fylde but Mowbray hopes to be able to provide them with match minutes ahead of the Bradford game.

That would provide a greater insight for the manager who fielded a youthful side in their opening pre-season friendly, putting the absence of senior players down to their workload in Scotland.

“We’ll keep working away with them, as we always do,” Mowbray said.

“We took them to Scotland to make them run and work and sweat on the back of that it was 45 minutes at Fylde.

“It’s pre-season so you have to play tired, it’s there to get you fit.”

That comes as Rovers announced the planned friendly at Gateshead on Saturday has been postponed.

The game was set to feature at Rovers XI, similar to the one that ran out 5-4 winners at AFC Darwen last weekend.

However, the club have announced that due to ‘operational and internal issues’ the game at The International Stadium won’t now be taking place. It is thought that is owing to the number of players unavailable to feature.

Billy Barr took a team largely made up of scholars to play at the Anchor Ground last weekend as Rovers came from 4-1 down to win 5-4.

A number of Barr’s regulars were involved in Mowbray’s squad at AFC Fylde, which a number of senior players sat out.

That meant a young side were involved at Mill Farm, Dan Pike, Sam Barnes, Louie Annesley, Isaac Whitehall, Sam Burns, Luke Brennan and Connor McBride among those getting game-time for Rovers on Saturday.

They will likely stay with the first-team until new faces are sought, Rovers yet to add any players to their squad this summer, with the season opener against Swansea City just over three weeks away.

The club are hopeful of wearing one of their new Macron supplied shirts for the Bradford City friendly, which is nine days away, and release designs to supporters before then.