Blackburn striker Anthony Stokes has called on the squad to kick on after picking up a first win of the season in the EFL Cup first round on Tuesday.

The Championship side were left red faced after the opening league game of the campaign as Norwich claimed a 4-1 win at Ewood Park.

The Owen Coyle era didn’t get off to the smoothest start but the squad took the opportunity to boost morale with a win in the domestic cup.

Blackburn overcame a potential banana skin by picking up a 3-1 triumph over Mansfield town to book a place in the second round.

Stokes, who joined this summer, opened his account with a consolation in the opening-day defeat to the Canaries, while he was also on point with a double against the Stags.

Newly promoted Wigan provide the next obstacle for Rovers on Saturday as they travel to the DW Stadium on the hunt for their first points of the campaign.

Stokes said: “We needed to pick ourselves up after Saturday and we did that on Tuesday.

“I thought it was a professional performance and, even when they equalised we struck back straight away, and I thought we saw the game out very well and we were comfortable.

“We wanted to bounce back. It was a difficult start for us on Saturday.

It wasn’t the result or the performance that we wanted but we rectified a few things on Tuesday and now we need to kick on from that and try and improve for the rest of the season.”