Rovers’ left back Tommy Spurr spoke to Rovers Player ahead of the visit to Scunthorpe on Saturday.
The season so far has been a great one for Spurr and the rest of the team and he believes Rovers can compete to the end and win promotion back to the Championship.
“We’ve got a tough run in but we fancy ourselves against the so called better sides.
“I think if anyone had said we’d be top of the league with eight games to go everyone would have snatched your hands off but, I think, now we know we could be quite a few points better off but we have nicked games at the end as well.”
On a personal level Tommy is pleased with his season, after a number of disappointing seasons fighting against relegation, and is relishing the prospect of being part of a promotion winning side.
“It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been involved with a team at the top end of the league, I had a few seasons at Sheffield Wednesday where we were fighting relegation and obviously last year was hard.
“This year it’s good to be at the other end, enjoying winning games and being part of a good side.
Despite a draw against lowly Portsmouth last week, Spurr only sees the positives from that game.
“We’ll see last week as a point gained because we didn’t play well but we’ll take the point and we’re still top of the league. Other results did go our way and it’s in our own hands.
Looking on from the home bench on Saturday is a man who has played a big part in his career but he knows there’s no time for sentiment in a derby match.
“He gave me my first decent professional contract at Sheffield Wednesday and I’m grateful for that and he made me captain a few times which meant a lot.
“Now I’ve got to put all that aside because we want the three points on Saturday.
Spurr knows that despite Scunthorpe’s poor league position it will not be an easy task.
“We know it’ll be a tough match because they’re fighting to stay up so it’s not a game where one team has nothing riding on it.
“Everyone knows how hard Scunthorpe away is. It’s always a tough game and they always seemed to have a good home record but Brian [Laws] and Russ [Wilcox] have done a good job because they were in trouble when they took over.”
Over the past few weeks there has been a consistency to Rovers’ left side and that is down to the impressive performances of both Tommy and James Husband. Both players have been praised highly and he is enjoying the roles they are both playing for the team.
“We’ve got an understanding because he’s naturally a left back. I think we’ve complimented each other by filling in for each other and working together.
Saturday’s fixtures see promotion rivals Sheffield United and Brentford go head to head in an early kick off and Spurr thinks this could work to Rovers’ advantage.
“We can use that as an advantage, whether it’ll be to increase the gap or get back to the top of the league.
“The quicker we can get the however many wins we need to go up then that’ll be great and if we can start on Saturday at Scunthorpe and carry that on it’ll be a good week for us.”