Tony Mowbray believes Ben Brereton has stepped up to fill the Adam Armstrong void in the Rovers side after the attacker was named as the Championship player of the month for September.

Brereton scored six times in five matches, including a hat-trick against Cardiff City, and stands joint-top of the Championship top scorers list with 10 goals in his opening 11 fixtures.

His sparkling form has helped Rovers into the top half of the Championship and softened the blow of losing last season’s top scorer Armstrong to Southampton in a £15m deal.

The 22-year-old is already into double figures and his form in September has been recognised by being named as player of the month.

And Mowbray said: “Ben’s contribution last month, and during the start to the season as a whole, has been a real bonus to the team, especially with the loss of Adam Armstrong and Harvey Elliott, who scored the bulk of the goals for us last season.

“Somebody needed to step up and I think Ben Brereton has done just that. We haven’t altered his position, he’s not playing right down the middle, he’s coming in off the left-hand side and he’s shown how potent he can be by coming in onto his right foot and getting in the six-yard box and scoring lots of different types of goals.

“He’s scored some headers, he’s bent a few in on his right foot, he’s scored some tap-ins, he’s scored some penalties, he’s done very well and hopefully when he returns from the international break he can keep it going.”

Brereton fought off competition from Viktor Gyokeres (Coventry City), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) and Jonathan Swift (Reading) to land the award.

He got October off to a scoring start when netting in the defeat at Blackpool, on what was his 100th Rovers appearance, to reach double figures for the first time in his career.

Brereton is currently away on international duty with Chile, who faced Peru overnight, and his involvement in matches against Paraguay (October 11) and Venezuela (October 15) are set to rule him out of featuring in Rovers’ game with Coventry on October 16.

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman, who is involved on the judging panel, said: “More players may well be checking their family trees for whatever heritage they can find at this rate, such is the form Ben Brereton Diaz has found since making his international debut for Chile.

“Never previously considered a prolific goal threat, he’s added a ruthless streak to his game this season, contributing to Blackburn’s overall assault on the Championship with six goals in September.”