Tony Mowbray felt Rovers were lacking in confidence in their win over Reading which he said was built on 'sheer hard work'.

Sam Gallagher and Tyrhys Dolan were on the scoresheet in the space of three minutes just after the hour as Rovers held out for a 2-0 victory at Ewood Park.

Rovers have now won four of their seven games at Ewood Park, having led 2-0 in six of them, and claimed a first victory in five games after a tough run on their travels.

Heading into the game on the back of taking just one point from a possible 12, Mowbray felt his side showed a lack of confidence in the opening stages as Reading dominated.

It took until the final stages of the first half for Rovers to threaten, with Gallagher hitting the bar, before the striker eventually got his reward with a tap-in after Joe Rothwell saw a shot come back off the post.

Speaking after his side recorded a 2-0 win, Mowbray said: “I think the team are lacking a bit of confidence and I think you could see that, but the hard work made up for a few deficiencies in possession.

“We’ve been so much more fluent in other games, we had to grind out a result and found a way to win.

“As I found out in the press conference on Friday, the questions start coming if you don’t win, there’s four you haven’t won in, and people aren’t bothered about the circumstances.

“We’ve lost two more players to injury, and I think the squad is really thin and once you lose some senior players you’re down to kids and this league is so tough.

“There’s a lot of teams at a similar level, but it’s hard, attritional football to get results and we had to grind that out a little bit.”

Rothwell went on one of his trademark breaks to create the opening goal, the midfielder having scored, and claimed an assist, in the last home game against Coventry City.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone, Joe Rothwell going on a long surging run, my job is to get Joe to do that four or five times a half, not once or twice,” Mowbray added.

“I said to him at half time that we needed more, he’d had one brilliant run, one half run but no end product. We saw him in the last home game score one and make one with his brilliant, long-surging runs, and he’s a young lad who’s never really played central midfield to be honest. 

“That’s why we play three in midfield, because if I’m being brutally honest he's not that good, and has a lot of learning to do out of possession, playing in midfield and when to put a foot in and sto people.

“With the ball he’s a sensation at times. I'm hapy with Joe. The good thing for me is that he’s working really hard on his out of possession game, check his shoulders on where the ball is going, cut the passing lines off, and is getting better.

“A brilliant goal from Dolan, but everyone worked hard, though I never sit here and say that the team got out-worked, they’re a fantastic group.

“The supporters should be happy the team are a bunch of kids that are grafting for the club.

“We showed what you can achieve by sheer hard work.”