Tony Mowbray admits that while Rovers’ early season fixture list looks tough on paper, he’s taking a more pragmatic view.

Rovers start their Championship campaign with a home match against Charlton on August 3 and face beaten play-off semi-finalists West Brom as well recently relegated duo Cardiff and Fulham in the opening month.

Middlesbrough, who finished eighth last season, are also in the first six fixtures, with statistics suggesting Rovers have the second toughest start in the division based upon last year’s finishing places.

But Mowbray said: “I’ve always said, the fixtures are the fixtures. You have to play everybody twice. It looks on paper quite a tough start, with some big clubs early on, like Fulham and Middlesbrough and Cardiff and West Brom.

“But it’s exciting, the fixtures coming out.

“You have to play them and the pragmatist in me says let’s just get ourselves as good as we can be and not worry about who we’re playing, let’s just play the football matches and see how we get on.”

Charlton won promotion back to the Championship with a play-off final win over Sunderland.

They beat Rovers in the penultimate fixture of the League One promotion season in 2017/18, but are without a goal in their last three visits to Ewood.

Rovers have been away from home in the two opening day matches that Mowbray has taken charge of, at Ipswich and Southend, but are without a win in their first fixture since 2010.

“I’ve always preferred to be away on the opening day to be honest,” Mowbray said, speaking to the club website.

“I think the adrenaline of the opening day of the season is so intense for both teams, the margins in the game are really, really tight.

“Everyone has had six weeks preparation. Everyone has watched the team they’re playing numerous times through pre-season. Everybody knows everything about everybody.

“They’re really tight games generally, so I’ve always preferred to play away and then have a couple of games at home, but I don’t mind.

“Charlton, as we did 12 months ago, coming out of League One, they’ll have a bit of momentum. They’ll relish the challenge and they’ll be fully at it.

“They’re all tough games. Let’s not think ‘it’s a promoted League One team, it’s an easy game’, because there’s no easy games.

“I saw Charlton’s games in the play-offs and they’re a good football team.

“I saw them live at Doncaster and they played really well that day, with a back three, good possession, good technical players and a threat up front.”