Elliott Bennett felt Rovers stood up as a squad to return to East Lancashire with four points from their two away matches.

Rovers stayed south for four days and backed up their 1-1 draw at Swansea City with an impressive 2-0 victory at Bristol City that moved them in to ninth in the Championship.

Boss Tony Mowbray made six changes from the team that drew at the Liberty Stadium three days earlier, including a recall for club captain Bennett, as Rovers won for a sixth time in eight games courtesy of goals from Bradley Johnson and substitute Adam Armstrong.

It’s been an excellent turnaround in fortunes for Rovers who are now unbeaten since their return to action after the November international break to climb eight places in the division.

And Bennett said: “I think it’s a terrific four points from two tough away games.

“We’ve stayed down and tried to do it the right way, we’ve been away from our families, but bonded even more and come away with four points which I think is a fantastic return.

“It’s six wins in eight now, so we’re in a really good place, confidence is high. The gaffer has made six changes, brought in a lot of players who haven’t featured that much, and everyone has stepped up to the mark and you have to do that to give the manager a headache to play every week.”

Rovers led through a well-worked corner routine in the second minute, as Bradley Johnson lashed home his second of the season from Lewis Holtby’s cutback.

Bennett said it was something the team had worked on in the lead up to the game, though the success rate hadn’t been quite as good as they managed in the game.

“We worked on it in training, the gaffer, (coach) David Lowe and (goalkeeping coach) Ben Benson work really hard on set pieces and spotted a weakness,” Bennett explained.

“We worked on it in training and thankfully it came off, because it didn’t the day before.”

Johnson hadn’t featured since the October defeat at Birmingham, but was recalled to the starting line-up against the Robins.

He scored the first, and set-up for the second for Armstrong, in what was a welcome return to form for the 32-year-old.

Bennett is close friends with Johnson from their days together at Norwich and asked if his display was what he can offer, the 30-year-old said: “I think so, snapping in to tackles, keeping the ball, scoring a goal, I’ve seen that so many times when we were at Norwich together.

“He played with aggression.

“Trav did what he does. Corry didn’t play and for me he’s been one of the best players in this run, so Johnno knew he had to come to the party and know the gaffer has a decision to make as to which two he plays in there.

“Brad did great and I think the team did really well to win.”

Rovers had to do without 10-goal top scorer Bradley Dack following his red card at Swansea.

Sam Gallagher and Ben Brereton were partnered together in attack, and while Bennett admits Dack would be a miss for any side, he says it was important to show Rovers aren’t solely reliant on their main man.

He added: “Bradley Dack is a superstar, our talisman, our go-to man who scores a lot of goals for us.

“Sometimes you don’t see everyone because the gaffer can only play so many and others have to bide their time.

“But the gaffer has always said that it’s a squad game and when you get your chance you have to take it and I think Ben and Sam did well, caused problems, and we came away with all three points.”