Damien Johnson says it wasn’t just the result that made the 7-1 win over Leicester City a season's best performance.

Rovers Under-23s moved out of the Premier League 2 relegation places by beating the second-placed Foxes, who were reduced to 10 men just before the break.

Joe Rankin-Costello opened the scoring, with Ben Paton and Stefan Mols on target before the break.

Jack Vale scored twice in as many minutes early in the second half to put the game beyond the visitors, though they did get a goal back on the hour mark.

John Buckley and Charley Doyle scored Rovers’ sixth and seventh goals, leaving Johnson proud of the way they fought against the high-flying Foxes, and the quality of the football they produced.

He said: “Leicester, we were down there earlier in the season and we know how aggressive in and out of possession they are. They can be quite direct, and we went down 3-0 earlier in the season and they have been really successful with their results this season.

“Teams find them difficult to deal with because as well as their physicality and directness they have some good players.

“We know it was going to be a tough test so in the context of how they’ve been playing and dealing with their style and how they beat us earlier in the season, first of all we stood up to that and we had to see it out for 10 or 15 minutes to be honest.

“We lacked a bit of composure but once we settled down I was delighted with the intensity and the aggressiveness of our play in and out of possession.

“I have talked a lot in the last few weeks about when we get in those wide areas about the types of delivery and crosses and the one-touch finishes around the goalscoring zone.

“We scored two or three goals from those types of situation which the boys have been working hard on, so it was nice for the group to score goals against a team high up in the table.”