Goalkeeper Jason Steele is in the 'best form' of his Blackburn Rovers career

And Rovers boss Bowyer credits factors both on and away from the field for Steele’s impressive showings.

The 24-year-old was named man-of-the-match in Wednesday’s last-gasp 1-0 derby victory at home to Bolton Wanderers and in the morale-building 0-0 draw at Bournemouth two weeks ago.

But, having also produced a good performance in the 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday, he had to watch on as his deputy Simon Eastwood was preferred between the posts for the FA Cup quarter-final 0-0 draw at Liverpool.

Eastwood has been an ever present in Rovers’ thrilling run to the last eight and Bowyer reckons the part he has played in getting them within touching distance of Wembley is certainly keeping Steele on his toes.

But he also feels the fact that the former England U21s international’s family is settled is also helping his game.

Steele, a father of two, was still travelling from his native north east until he made his loan move from boyhood club Middlesbrough permanent in January.

Bowyer said: “You should never be afraid of competition.

“It challenges you and you should take that challenge on and it should make you better.

“Steeley is in his best form for us since he arrived.

“It’s always going to be difficult for him to come and join a new club after being at Middlesbrough for such a long part of his life.

“He’s then had to move house as well, and that’s unsettling, but now he’s got him and his family together and that makes a massive difference to a player.

“And we’re seeing the benefits of that now and I thought his handling on Wednesday night was terrific.”

Bowyer admitted it was tough to put Eastwood back on the bench after he helped Rovers keep a clean sheet at Anfield.

But he faces just as big a decision over who to partner stand-in skipper Matt Kilgallon at centre-back in today’s clash at Charlton Athletic.

Baptiste was alongside Kilgallon for the 0-0 draws with Bournemouth and Liverpool.

But, after he was ruled out against Wednesday and against Bolton, on-loan West Ham United youngster Doneil Henry filled his shoes superbly.

Kilgallon, who is captaining Rovers in Grant Hanley’s absence, believes both Baptiste and Henry have staked strong claims.

He said: “They say when you get a chance in football you’ve got to take it and both of them are doing that at the minute.

“Every time they’ve played they’ve done themselves no harm and put a case forward to play in the next game.

“It’s good to have that competition in the squad.”

Bowyer hailed the win over Bolton as their best of the season given it came 72 hours after their FA Cup exploits against the Premier League’s form team.

And Kilgallon agrees.

He said: “When teams play such an important game, like an FA Cup quarter-final at Anfield, it’s quite, not hard, but sometimes the next league game can be a bit down, a bit flat.

“But we knew we couldn’t allow it to be, not with it being a local derby.

“They came with a lot of players over 6ft, they’re a big team, so we knew what they were going to be about.

“But we matched now and now we can look forward to Charlton.”