Tony Mowbray feels his attackers are becoming more ‘goal aware’ as they look to replace the void left by Adam Armstrong.

Ben Brereton’s hat-trick against Cardiff City means he has now scored seven times in nine games, matching his tally from the whole of last season, while Sam Gallagher and Tyrhys Dolan have chipped in with three each.

Both were on target at the weekend, while all three also clocked up an assist, as Rovers hit five goals for the fourth time in a year in the victory over Cardiff City.

Armstrong scored hat-tricks in the previous three five-goal routs, including against tonight’s opponents Huddersfield Town in April, but with the 29-goal frontman since departed, alongside the 18-goal contribution of Harvey Elliott, the mantle has fallen on others to step up, with Bradley Dack set to miss the remainder of the calendar year.

The manager still feels there’s more to come from his attackers, including to find a more selfish instinct to boost their goal tallies.

“I think those are internal mechanisms as footballers. Our stance as a coaching staff has been to continually improve those players as much as we can,” Mowbray said.

“They haven’t had the opportunity to play centre forward while Armstrong has been here because he took that booth and scored the goals and did the job for the team.

“They continue to grow, Sam Gallagher would have come and expected and wanted to play centre forward, yet Adam Armstrong came in and played on the left wing for the first 18 months, two years.

“Sam Gallagher has played on the right wing a lot for us, when I say wingers, they’re not, they’re wide strikers, rather than someone who stands getting chalk on his boots. We play wide strikers whose job it is to score goals.

“They have growth mindsets, they want to see their clips of what they did on Saturday, see the bad bits as well as good the bits so they can improve, and they’re naturally doing that as they mature themselves. It’s benefitting the team.

“Are they stepping up? Yes, they’re scoring goals that are allowing us to win football matches.

“Are they naturally as ‘selfish’ as Adam Armstrong at wanting to score goals? Possibly not, but I’m hoping they can develop that and grow into that, and if we go a few weeks without scoring that they feel the burden is on them to find the back of the net and get between the sticks and into areas we can score goals. At the moment, they’re doing that.”

While Rovers failed to add to their forward line in the summer, despite Armstrong’s departure, they haven’t spent a seven-figure fee on a player since Gallagher’s arrival from Southampton in 2019.

Brereton joined 12 months earlier from Nottingham Forest with a hefty price tag, and although Mowbray accepts they haven’t always had the opportunity to play in a central role, he feels they are showing real signs of growth and has never seen their position as a barrier to getting goals.

“I sign raw assets. Brereton was technical, mobile, big, Gallagher was sheer power, strength, you have to mould those assets and put those in areas where they can hurt the opposition,” he added.

“For varying reasons, mainly because Armstrong played down the middle and continually scored goals, they didn’t get the opportunity to play in that position.

“Not as defined as a round peg in a square hole, but they were playing slightly out of position, and still do.

“Ben is relishing playing off the left, I see him practising every day cutting in from the left-hand side, driving straight, checking and bending it into the far corner on his right foot, it’s a technique that if you practice and practice on a matchday it’s likely to happen.

“They’re developing their games and what they do.

“Gallagher, a diagonal to the back post heading it down for Dolan to have a touch and score, it’s what we practice as a team.

“He’s got a bazooka of a right foot and he should be shooting more and he had a few the other day, he scored one, he hit a rocket that went just wide and then another the keeper parried it, he’s becoming more goal aware, rather than just running up and down, he’s getting into the box.

“It’s early, I’m not getting carried away with where we are.”

Gallagher finished as second top scorer to Armstrong last season, with eight, one ahead of Brereton who now has double figures in his sights after an excellent start to the season.

Mowbray added: “We do a lot of work on comparison data with the players, how many assists, how many goals do you score.

“The charts are looking good, Brereton is where he was at last season by the end, Gallagher is infront of where he was, Dolan is infront of where he was, and those targets and goals are always there for them to achieve and surpass, and push on and extend the limits.

“It’s a self-motivation to be better than where they were.”