Tony Mowbray was left ‘frustrated and disappointed’ by Rovers’ first half showing in the defeat at Norwich City.

Rovers trailed 2-0 inside the opening quarter to long range strikes from Marco Stiepermann and Mario Vrancic.

Both came as Rovers failed to press the ball enough, before Lewis Travis’ first senior goal gave Rovers hope in the 24th minute.

But the Canaries continued to dominate the chances, with Onel Hernandez denied by the crossbar while Jayson Leutwiler saved well from Teemu Pukki and Emi Buendia.

“I think we are frustrated and disappointed with most of the first half. We didn’t play on the front foot enough,” Mowbray said.

“It was a game for nothing for us. We tried to screen and protect but they scored two from long range when really the midfield should have been pressing.

“It was frustrating. We sorted it out at half time and the second half I thought we were better.

“Norwich are a good side, you can’t disguise that. They have some really good footballers and I think they might do okay in the Premier League if they continue to be as brave as they are and play like that.”

Travis and Jack Rodwell struggled to get to grips with the Norwich midfield in the first half, and Mowbray added:“Defenders have to defend, I don’t know why the midfielders’ were trying to do the defenders’ jobs.

“Maybe there was a bit of fear early on, I’m not sure.

“It’s a learning curve for them, playing against a top team, but once we got a grip of that in midfield we were better and started to give them more problems and created a bit of anxiety.

“But it wasn’t enough. We’ll get better as we move on.”

Mowbray is keen to see Rovers play a more progressive style moving forward, with Joe Rothwell finishing the game in central midfield to try and give Rovers more creativity.

Though the boss feels Norwich’s extra quality in midfield makes it easier to play that particular style.

“They have better players in midfield than we have I would have to say,” Mowbray said.

“That’s why we’re talking so much about recruitment, when you have the better players you have more of a chance of playing better football.

“It’s no good saying you’re going to play a certain way if you don’t have the players to do it.

“For two years we’ve been pretty attritional, playing on the front foot, and had a lot of success doing it.

“But as I’ve been saying, we are trying to develop a different way of playing but we have to have the players to be able to do that.

“We went with Rothwell in central midfield to try and give us a bit of creativity and eliminate people with his passing. Norwich have a team of players who can do that.”