Chile international Ben Brereton will return to his hometown this afternoon.

That isn’t a sentenced you would have imagined 11 months ago when Rovers made their last visit to the bet365 Stadium.

Injury may have ruled him out of the 1-0 defeat in December 2020 when he was simply ‘Ben Brereton’ with no ‘Diaz’ attached and only five goals in two-and-a-half seasons to his name.

Ahead of today’s game he is second only to Aleksandar Mitrovic in the Championship scoring charts, his midweek brace against Peterborough United taking him to 16 in 19 matches while he is now a nine-capped Chile international with three goals for his country.

Brereton grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and as a Potters fan, a season ticket holder during the days of Tony Pulis and for a short spell on their books as a teenager.

The 22-year-old will have friends in the home end and family among the travelling Rovers contingent as he looks to continue his meteoric rise.

It's an experience he's relishing.

“I’m really excited. Born in Stoke, supported Stoke all my life and really excited to go back there and play in the ground that I used to go and watch them play,” he explained.

“I’m really excited and hopefully we can go there and get a good result.

“I’ve got friends and family going, my friends in the home end and my family in the end away end so it should be fun.”

Injured for the last visit and an unused substitute in November 2019 when Rovers won 2-1, he featured in the closing stages of the 3-2 victory in September 2018 as Rovers held out for a narrow victory.

His memories of watching the Potters are positive ones and never looks back at not getting a chance in their Academy as a missed opportunity.

He said: “I grew up a season-ticket holder, going with friends and family, back in the day of (Rory) Delap and Fuller.

“I used to love Ricardo Fuller and Mama Sidibe, it was really good.

“I was there for a year or so, before scholarship, only for a year and then I went to Forest.

“I was young and they didn’t offer me anything, I had a couple of months off football and then went to Forest.

“I was a young lad still finding my way in football and was only there for a year.”

Brereton is in the form of his life, six goals in his last five appearances while four of his last seven shots have found the back of the net.

He is ahead of Adam Armstrong’s tally at the same stage of last season, his former team-mate having netted 29 times in 2020/21.

Rovers too are performing ahead of expectation and know victory at the bet365 Stadium will move them into the play-off spots at the 20-game mark.

“This season I’ve enjoyed playing football, I love playing with the lads and it’s been great that I’ve been scoring goals,” Brereton added.

“We’ve had some good results, we’re seventh now and a good result can help us keep pushing forward.

“I’m happy with where we are and we just need to keep working hard and pushing on.

“We’ve got a young squad with some experienced heads in there and everyone is just hungry to play and wants to do well.

“I feel as a team we’ve bonded, there’s a real togetherness that you can see on the pitch and it’s a positive start to the season.

“We’ve had a good few months but need to keep it going and challenging to get into the top six.

“I had a great summer, this season I’ve scored some goals and my confidence is getting bigger and bigger. Hopefully I can keep putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Knowing the opposition well however, Brereton believes it will be a tough ask for him to keep his scoring run going and Rovers’ their progress up the table.

“They’ve got a great team, it’s a tough place to go, especially in November when it’ll be cold and they’re going to want it,” he said.

“We'll have to match that and be motivated and every time we go on the pitch we are looking to get three points and hopefully we can do that and get into the top six.”

There was no chance of a second hat-trick of the season in midweek, Brereton replaced soon after scoring his second goal.

That pre-planned change gave the striker a well-earned rest but cut short his hopes of a 17th of the season.

“At half time he said to me that if it’s comfortable he wanted to bring me off and I said I didn’t mind," Brereton said.

“When I scored my second I was half gutted because I could have maybe got another goal but half an hour’s rest was good.”