ONLY 13 months ago Danny Graham was a bit-part player at Rovers as he started just seven of their opening 22 League One fixtures.

A goal off the bench in a December 2017 win over Charlton was just his third in the league, and out of contract in the summer of 2018, there were doubts over the 33-year-old’s long-term future at the club.

Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, scoring 17 goals last season which helped propel Rovers back to the Championship, and playing a major role this term as Tony Mowbray's side begin to stabilise in the second tier.

Graham was rewarded with a new one-year deal last summer, which has now been extended after activating an appearance-based clause with Graham having started 20 of Rovers’ 25 league matches so far.

The striker, who has always spoken highly of his time at the club and never indicated a desire to leave, is enjoying something of a renaissance and his value and importance to the team is growing by the week.

But could boss Mowbray have envisaged the turnaround from bit-part to key player, all in the space of a matter of months?

“I knew he had the potential to do that,” the boss said of the 33-year-old. “When players get to a certain age they can become set in their ways and say ‘this is how I play’.

“I needed, if he was going to stay, to change his mindset. Every credit to Danny Graham he took it all on board.

“The way I wanted to play, you couldn’t stand around on the edge of the box and wait for the ball.

“You could never take away his ability to finish off both feet and head the ball in to the net, yet the team required more of a work ethic and a bigger physical output from him.

“To his great credit he took that on board, he understand that he needed to run more and he’s done that, he’s got fitter over the piece.”

Graham struggled for fitness during Mowbray’s 15-game tenure of the 2016/17 Championship relegation campaign, with just one of his 13 goals that season coming after the new manager had been brought in.

But a fitter Graham is now proving to the ideal frontman for Mowbray.

“When you get to 33 sometimes the body, as he has done at times, little injuries knock you back a bit but you have to get back on the training ground and work extremely hard which is what I see,” the boss added.

“I see him enjoying his time, laughing and joking with the lads around the environment we’ve created.

“Hopefully he realises that this extra workload will help him prolong his career and it might give him another year or two which gives him more earning power.

“It’s only a benefit and I think that’s modern day football. All the top teams, their strikers can all run and are athletic.

“If your main strength is to hold the ball up, Danny brings those qualities, but he has the ability to help the team close down from the front.

“There were one or two episodes against West Bromwich Albion where there was huge applause for him because he closed down the goalie, then the full back, and then turned around to run back and close the other full back.

“Even though he didn’t touch the ball the supporters en masse applauded his effort and hopefully he’s seeing the benefit of that. It certainly benefits the team.”