Tony Mowbray feels Ben Brereton has shed the pressures of the £6m price-tag that affected his first two years at the club after netting his 20th goal of the season in the win over Barnsley.

Brereton scored only two goals in his first two seasons at Ewood Park but became the 24th player to score 20 goals in a single campaign for the club by firing home the winner as Rovers made it six victories in a row.

Only Adam Shearer has reached the milestone quicker than the 22-year-old who has more than justified the investment in him when signing him from Nottingham Forest in 2018.

Mowbray feels an extra maturity has been pivotal to Brereton’s upturn in fortunes infront of goal, helped by his exploits on the international stage with Chile and is happy to see him get the deserved accolades.

“I think he’s matured rather than improved. He’s always had talent,” “Mowbray said.

“I can handle the criticism of the first two years. We had Danny Graham and Bradley Dack starring for the team and he came as a young boy.

“He was bought for the money he was because of the talent he has, and what’s happened is the external pressures of being in a dressing room with senior players and people with great careers and with huge personalities, as they have left the dressing room, generally because they have got to an age where their contracts have expired and we haven’t given them new ones, as he’s grown from 18 to 22 he’s just matured into a man and he’s a big personality in the dressing room.

“He’s a wonderful footballer but a wonderful human being first, he loves all the lads.

“He’s a funny character, he was playing head tennis the other day in his briefs and looked like Tarzan, laughing and joking and it’s great to see how his personality has grown.

“The external pressure of living up to the price-tag have been shed. He had the confidence of going away and playing for his mother’s native country and has done exceptionally well.

“We’re all delighted for him that he can take some accolades because it was a tough few years as he matured into the player he is today.”