Gary McSheffrey was proud of Rovers’ hard work during their Sky Bet League One victory against promotion hopefuls Sunderland.
First half goals from Reo Griffiths and Tommy Rowe fired Rovers to three points at the Stadium of Light.
On his assessment of the win:
“We were clinical and forced their goalkeeper into some good saves. We were unlucky not to be three or four-nil up at half time.
“We knew in the second half we were going to have to weather a storm. I asked the boys for a solid performance and to a man they worked their socks off.
"We dug in and gave ourselves something to hold on to.
“When you come to places like the Stadium of Light you need to quieten the crowd as quickly as possible and to hear them booing at half-time was music to my ears."
On Griffiths' first goal for Rovers:
“Reo was good today. He showed he can play on either side and got the ball into good pockets early on.
“It was a great link-up from him and Josh Martin and a lovely left-footed finish from Reo.
“Reo is not close to full match fitness yet so from that perspective there’s more to come from him.
“He is one of the best young players I have seen in training throughout my entire football career. He has shown glimpses of what he can do against Sunderland for 80 minutes.”
On using the result as a springboard for a busy month ahead:
“Hopefully the win against Sunderland can be a springboard. We have a lot of difficult games coming up.
“We have two wins from four games which I think is good form because I would snap your hand off for one win in every two games between now and the end of the season.
“Barring the game against Rotherham, our performances of late have been positive.”