Blackburn Rovers manager Gary Bowyer praised his squad following their first friendly victory of pre-season, while admitting he was “pleasantly surprised” with the quality on show.

Rovers, who are priced at 8.50 to get promoted in 2015-16, kicked off their pre-season campaign with a friendly trip to neighbours Accrington Stanley on Saturday.

Bowyer’s men came away from the Store First Stadium with a 2-0 victory thanks to excellent finishes from Dean Furman and Craig Conway.

The Championship outfit could have added further goals to their tally on an enjoyable outing, which also saw goalkeeper David Raya save a penalty to keep the hosts out.

The 44-year-old admitted the main objective from the friendly was to help raise the fitness levels of the squad ahead of their training camp away in Portugal this week.

The north-west club hadn’t played any football for 10 weeks prior to Saturday’s win and Bowyer revealed that he was impressed with the performance as a whole.

The manager told reporters: “It’s always important that you get game time and I thought we showed good energy and good fitness levels. And I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the timings of some of the boys back on the pitch, it was very pleasing.

“We scored two fantastic goals, which is always a bonus, and kept a clean sheet, which will give everyone a boost, and David saved a penalty as well, so it was a good afternoon’s workout.

“We’ll now build on what we’ve done here in Portugal.”

Rovers utilised four trialists for the fixture with Furman impressing as he netted, while Giles Coke, Liam Nolan and Sacha Petshi also featured.

Bowyer admitted that it is always a big ask to expect a trialist to slot in immediately but felt they applied themselves well as they look to secure a contract.

He added: “It’s always difficult for the trialists coming in because they are desperate to do well and sometimes you’ve just go to calm them down a little bit.

“But the lads have applied themselves ever so well in training and again today in the game.”