Garry Monk feels tomorrow's game could come down to a battle of the strike partnerships - with both sides possessing goals in attack.

Bradley Dack and Danny Graham have scored 18 goals for Rovers so far this season, one less than Birmingham's pairing of Lukas Jutkiewicz and Che Adams.

While Graham and Jutkiewicz are the focal points of their side, Dack and Adams look to play off them.

Monk sees similarities, but also differences, between the two pairings, but hopes his duo can come out on top at Ewood Park.

He said: “They’re slightly different players all four of them.

“In terms of a partnership, you want to feed off each other and complement each other.

“They slightly complement each other differently than Che and Jukey but in terms of their effectiveness and deliverance of performances they’ve been very similar throughout the season, so that will be interesting.

“It won’t just be about four players, even though the talk may be and in the build-up and stuff like that.

“The focus of the game outwardly might be on that, but ours is very much about the collective and what we need to do as a team and that’s what we focus on every week.

“If it comes down to those two against those two and they can grab the headlines, then hopefully it’s our two that can grab the headlines.”

Rovers have lost just once at home this season, while the Blues suffered their first home defeat last season, as the similarities between the two continue.

On Rovers, Monk added: “They have been fantastic, they had a lot of confidence from promotion.

“They have got a very good squad, especially attacking-wise the front two.

“Like most teams you want to be strong at home and theirs is as strong as ours. It will be a difficult game but we are really looking forward to it.

“We will go up there, be one hundred per cent and prove we can go away to tough teams with good records and get the results we want.”

Connor Mahoney could start against his former side, with the Bournemouth loanee having enjoyed a run in the side due to Jota’s injury.

The Spaniard is in contention to feature, but Monk has been happy with the impact of Mahoney who left Rovers in 2017 following relegation to League One.

“He’s getting there, but Connor is still very young. Like a lot of young; including players from our club that have come through, there are certain traits,” the Birmingham boss said of the 21-year-old winger.

 Connor has done fantastic coming here. He’s fitted straight in with the group character wise,” Monk said of the 21-year-old.

“You can see his ability and I just think it’s about wanting more of it and the more game time and experience that he gets he’ll understand how to impose that onto the opposition more often in games and for longer periods in games until he gets to that point where it can be full games.

“That’s his fight and that’s what we’re pushing him for.”