Tony Mowbray may be facing one of his former clubs tomorrow afternoon, but he admits it will be a very different Coventry City to the one he left five years ago.

Mowbray lauded the work of opposite number Mark Robins whose four-and-a-half years in the job have taken the Sky Blues from League Two to the Championship, with an EFL Trophy win also thrown in for good measure.

Their rise has seen them climb to third in the table prior to their visit to Rovers, with a 100 per cent home record and on the back of a 4-1 thumping of Fulham heading into the international break.

Mowbray remains popular with the Coventry fans, memories of their electric start to the 2015/16 season with Adam Armstrong leading in the way in attack, supplemented by the likes of James Maddison, Ryan Kent, Jacob Murphy and Joe Cole.

However, after failing to reach the play-offs that season, and a winless start to the following campaign, Mowbray resigned after 18 months in the job after failing to strengthen in the summer transfer window.

After his successor Russell Slade was sacked, Robins returned for a second spell in March 2017, a month after Mowbray took over at Rovers, and despite not being able to keep them in League One, they did win the EFL Trophy before their renaissance began with a League Two play-off final win a year later.

“They are, because when I had them they were in League One for a start,” Mowbray said of the difference between the club he faces this weekend and left in 2016.

“I think Mark Robins has done a quite remarkable job. I know it’s still the same ownership, they’re good people that run that football club and have a wonderful support base behind them and an amazing stadium.

“Mark’s done a quite remarkable job and created a culture and style of play and I look at his squad, his squad depth looks good when I look at the opposition team and options.

“They seem to have a really well balanced group of players that play in the style they do.

“They have got good results this season, it’s still early of course, but they will be a good test for us.

“I’m sure they’re looking forward to it on the back of such a positive result in their last game, but we have to go beyond that game and they lost 5-0 at Luton recently.

“Like a lot of teams they will be striving for consistency, to find a winning formula week in, week out. Everyone seems to play different styles and in different formation, some are direct, some are total football, some are taking short goal kicks, some are banging it off their big centre forward, it’s just the next game for us, but Coventry City are doing exceptionally well.”

The Coventry visit is one of four Ewood games for Rovers in the six matches leading into the November international break, the third one of the season already.

However, Mowbray isn’t looking at them as a block of six, or setting any points targets, instead preferring to focus on the next game.

“Not really, they are on the board in my office as a block of games, we have four games at home, but some tough ones with Fulham and Sheffield United in there back-to-back,” he added.

“They’re tough games, whether they are at home or away, but I don’t sit here and think we have to get so many points from these next six games, I just sit here and focus on the next game against Coventry City.”