Dilan Markanday admits that this pre-season will be crucial to convincing John Eustace that he's ready to play regularly for Blackburn Rovers.

The 22-year-old is now preparing for his fourth season at Ewood Park, having joined the club from Tottenham Hotspur in January 2022.

Markanday has struggled for consistency after flashes of excitement since he moved to Lancashire. The right-winger has once again looked bright in pre-season, scoring three goals already.

The challenge for Markanday is to show the same output in the Championship, week in, week out. Last season, he looked bright in cup opportunities and in cameos off the bench but that would never translate into a 90-minute performance in the league.

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After again looking sharp during the early weeks of pre-season, he conceded it is a crucial period if he's to earn the trust of Eustace.

"I feel good, I've done a lot of work in my time off," he told RoversTV reflecting on the first four weeks of pre-season.

"Just the stuff that the sports scientists have put out for us and going beyond that with fitness and strength stuff as well to bulk up a bit more.

"The demands of the Championship are brutal. I feel good and sharp, the manager wants us to be confident, express ourselves and that's what I want to do as an attacker.

"I feel a lot more confident on the pitch. I've said it every year about how big this pre-season is for me but it's the truth.

"It's so important every year, this is no different, the first one under this gaffer. I want to change his mind if he's made it already or to make an impression, that's really important for me and other players.

"I always back myself to score goals and create goals. I am working hard in training to be better, to improve and be more effective.

"If any attacker can score or assist, they are proving themselves and they'll stay in the team. That's what I need to do."

There were seven different goal-scorers from the eight netted against Tranmere Rovers at the weekend. Markanday was the exception, bagging two and perhaps he should've had even more.

Pre-season has been the ideal setting for Eustace to drill his ideas into the players after such a frantic end to last season. The focus in these weeks has been to improve the attacking output as well as remain defensively solid.

"It was a good workout. The second game now with all the boys getting minutes into their legs," Markanday said.

"Trying to show the gaffer what we can do in his first pre-season. It was a good performance, happy to win both games.

"I was maybe trying to hard to get that last goal at the end but I'm happy to get a couple and then one last week.

"I feel sharp. As an attacker, you want to express yourself, scoring always makes it easier to show that to the manager.

"Off-the-ball stuff is important too and I hope I am showing that to him. It's about consistency and doing it next week, I can't be satisfied with doing it one game."

"It feels like a clean slate for everyone, he's made that clear. He's said if you do well, you'll be considered to be starting games," he added on Eustace's messaging.

"We know our roles, we work on it every day. I think we're getting more and more knowledge of what he wants.

"He has put in a structure for us but in the last third we have freedom, we're building connections with each other."

Rovers are now away on a pre-season camp in Austria which they'll round off with a friendly against Nurnberg on Saturday. 

It offers the players another opportunity to impress Eustace whilst bonding with their team-mates and taking them into a new setting.

Markanday is grateful for the chance to get some better weather, given the usual Lancashire ground fall.

"It will be really good, I am really looking forward to it, to get away from the rain!" he responded.

"I'm looking forward to bonding with the players and staff, we're getting away from the normal environment and playing against a good team at the end of the week.

"Everyone is putting lots of hard work in on the training pitch and in the gym. We're looking forward to it, I think we're getting stronger every week.

"We're learning more from the gaffer every week. It's a good opportunity to understand what he wants and we are. We've been able to put that into practice in the matches which is really good."