John Eustace believes Blackburn Rovers are seeing the benefits of a deeper squad after a positive start to the season.

Rovers have started the season with three wins in four games, taking seven points from nine in the Championship.

Five goals have already been scored by substitutes, with Arnor Sigurdsson's strike at the weekend ensuring another player from the bench was the match-winner. That tally is already more than they managed in the entirety of last season.

Having options from the bench was a luxury Eustace feels he didn't have last season and has therefore been delighted with the impact of his substitutes.

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"If you look at what we did last year, I only really used 14 players. Did we have the squad depth? I don't think we did," he told The Lancashire Telegraph.

"The lads we did use last year were outstanding but there was very limited numbers. We have spoken about that but people wanted to still speak about results and ask why we didn't do this and that.

"You're only as good as your squad. We have improved the squad in those forward areas and when we look around to make positive changes, they're paying off.

"We know we can keep going. It won't always work, we don't always score late on but it's important everyone sees we have the righting spirit which we had last year."

Rovers have started the season in fine form in front of goal, scoring 14 goals in their first four games of the season. The goals have been spread around too with nine different players already finding the net.

After being hard to beat last term to secure survival, Eustace believes the efforts of hard work in pre-season from the coaching team is paying off.

"There has been a lot of hard work in pre-season from the coaching staff," he said.

"They have worked their socks off, Keith (Downing), Gards (Matt Gardener), Damien (Johnson), Lowey (David Lowe). They have been trying to help improve in the final third.

"It's something that we said we needed to do last season. I am pleased that at the moment it is paying off.

"We laid a lot of foundations last year, we came in with the team having lost eight out of 11 and then lost five or six in 18 to stay in the league.

"We made ourselves hard to beat and bedded in key principles. Nobody was carried away with the lows or the highs. Then we've had a good seven weeks on the training pitch to continue those principles that we need to be successful.

"This hasn't happened overnight, it's been a six-month process. It's nice that we're heading in the right direction at the moment."

Rovers' win over Oxford was their first back-to-back home league success since March 2023. The form at Ewood Park was poor last year but Eustace wants to make it a fortress again.

"The home form will always be key in every season, last year it wasn't good enough and we can all agree on that. To start with two wins at home is very pleasing."