Having described conceding late goals as ‘the elephant in the room’ after last weekend’s draw at Birmingham City, Tony Mowbray believes Rovers’ struggles are down to their mentality.

Che Adams equalised for the Blues just 90 seconds after Danny Graham put Rovers 2-1 up, the 22nd time Mowbray’s men have conceded in the final 11 minutes of games.

They have led in 21 of their 34 league matches, but turned just 11 of those in to victories, something Mowbray accepts is holding his side back.

They have slipped to 15th in the table ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Rotherham United, and Rovers will be glad to see the back of a winless February.

“I think it’s only a mentality situation. I think the team when they get in front late in a game they try and protect the lead, and that’s the wrong thing to do I think,” Mowbray said of the issue.

“You should be continuing to be in an aggressive mode, play on the front foot, trying to keep the opposition away from your goal, rather than trying to protect your goal and get men behind the ball.

“That’s something you have to learn, it has to become second nature, it’s not something you can put in your mind and do, because it goes against your natural human instinct which is to protect what you have, get men behind the ball and keep it away from your goal.

“Sometimes when you have lots of men behind the ball you’re actually inviting trouble on yourselves which is probably what we’ve been doing.

“I need to get their mentality so that when it next happens, the front players and wide attacking players keep pushing on, still pressing, playing high up, and let the defenders defend, rather than getting everyone behind the ball and try and protect which ultimately means we’re inviting trouble on top of ourselves.

“It’s more mental than anything else. It’s something we talk about, and work on, but for the vast majority of the game that’s what we’re doing, but when we get ourselves in front there is this mechanism that tries to protect.”

Adams’ double last week means Rovers have now conceded 35 times on the road in 17 matches, the same number as in the 2016/17 when they were relegated, and the most in the Championship.

Mowbray has already made clear of his plans to strengthen defensively in the summer, but believes the whole team can help cure their late woes.

He added: “I’m talking about pressing high up the pitch, so when their defenders get the ball we don’t sit everyone behind it, but keep doing what we do, push up, press, make them go direct, but from longer and with less quality.

“Defenders have to head the ball out, that’s part and parcel of football. I wouldn’t blame this on one particular department, all of them have to function.

“Frustration is the word, to be in front on so many times but to concede so quickly, you just think about how many points we could have had.

“We will resolve it, we will get stronger, and my job, and everyone’s at this club, is to make this club, progress and stronger as we move forward.

“That’s something we aim to do and one thing will be to resolve the late goals against.”

The boss branded the opening 20 minutes at Birmingham ‘unacceptable’, a week after describing the first half in the 1-0 defeat against Middlesbrough as ‘unrecognisable’ of his side.

But pleased with large parts of his side’s display at St Andrew’s, the Rovers boss added: “There were plenty of positives, but the frustration is there again, the late goal conceded after going in front.

“It’s something we continue to talk about and work on and hopefully somewhere along the line those things will be eradicated and will win football matches on a regular basis to improve the team as we go along.”