PERHAPS we should not be surprised coming from such a big cricket fan that Blackburn Rovers boss Gary Bowyer played a straight bat yesterday when asked about his side’s late play-off charge.

Bowyer, in his press conference for tonight’s crunch clash with Brentford, was certainly given ample opportunity to talk up revived Rovers’ chances of making the top six.

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After all victory over the sixth-placed Bees would see them close the gap between the teams to just five points with eight games of the campaign to play.

Bowyer, however, was in no mood to get carried away, just as he was in no mood to get carried away after the loss to Norwich City three weeks ago that left Rovers 15 points off the play-offs.

“We’re approaching it game by game,” said Bowyer.

“Nobody expects us to break into the play-offs but we’re just going to keep on doing what we’ve been doing and see where we are come the end of the season.

“Even after the Brentford game there’ll be a hell of a lot of football to play as you’ve seen that a team can put a couple of wins together and all of a sudden are talked about as contenders.

“It’s just about being level-headed. We had a spell when we broke into the top six and we said we’d be level and we had a bit of a dip in form before and after Christmas but we stayed level then, too.

“That’s what you’ve got to do in this Championship. You can’t afford to get carried away because the game has a way of bringing you back down to earth.”

Bowyer admits, though, Rovers are in a ‘rich vein of form’, and should they beat Brentford tonight it would be the first time in their manager’s Ewood Park rein they have recorded four straight league wins.

And the reason for their marked improvement?

“Nothing more than hard work,” insisted Bowyer.

“We’ve stated all along that we haven’t changed anything drastically, we’ve just continued to work ever so hard.

“The FA Cup run has given us a massive boost of confidence and belief, we’ve cut out individual errors and the bounce of the ball has gone our way a couple of times.

“But the main thing is the work ethic has stayed the same.

“The players are coming together ever so nicely at the moment but we know the challenge that lies ahead.”

Brentford ran out 3-1 winners in December’s Griffin Park between the sides with one of their scorers that day, former Rovers midfielder Jonathon Douglas, described by Bowyer as one of his players of the season in the Championship.

But since then it has been confirmed the Bees’ manager Mark Warburton will leave the club at the end of season and they have lost three of their last seven games.

Bowyer said: “Mark has done a great job and I fully expect them to be up there at the end of the season.

“His situation is a bit of a strange one but they’ll keep going because that’s what Mark will demand of them.”