Tony Mowbray felt the 1-1 draw at Rangers was the ‘perfect game’ for Rovers.

Rovers maintained their unbeaten pre-season record with a 1-1 draw infront of more than 18,000 at Ibrox.

Steven Gerrard’s side had the better of the opening 45 minutes and deservedly led at the break courtesy of Jermain Defoe’s header.

But Rovers improved in the second half, with half-time substitute Lewis Travis equalising in the 65th minute.

The changes had a positive effect on the Rovers side who are next in action when they travel to Bury on Wednesday.

“I thought it was a good game for us,” Mowbray said.

“We will have a lot of games this season where we’re out of possession.

“We have tried to have had games where we’ve been building our in-possession game but also have have teams who are good with the ball.

“This was what we thought would be our toughest game without the ball and Rangers didn’t let us down, they were good with the ball in the first half particularly.

“They are a well coached team with some good players.

“For us it was the perfect game.”

Amari’i Bell got his first run-out of pre-season, while summer signings Bradley Johnson and Stewart Downing both start.

Only three players, Jayson Leutwiler, Darragh Lenihan and Elliott Bennett completed the 90 minutes, and Mowbray said: “The difficulty is giving everyone game-time.

“We have to get to a stage where we give everyone 90 minutes because they will have to when the season kicks off.

“It was a short close season and for us it was a good game.

“Rangers have an identity under Stevie and they are a well-coached team.”

Rovers looked much improved with the players introduced in the second half, and the boss added: “We brought some young players on, some athleticism on, and players who can stay with the ball.

“John Buckley, I don’t want to build him up too much but he has great ability to take care of the football, Joe Rothwell as well, I thought we looked good and were going to nick the game in the last 20 minutes.

“It was a good test. They were good with the first half and caused us problems.

“We are going to be out of possession at times this season against some pretty good teams and that’s why it was a good test for us.”