TOMORROW’S Derby County match starts what I believe is a massive week for Blackburn Rovers.

Games with Barnsley and Blackpool follow in the next seven days and I think if Blackburn can beat Derby they could well be looking at nine points from nine.

And if they get three wins then they would well and truly put themselves in the play-off mix.

Don’t get me wrong we’ve seen Blackburn drop points to sides they should have beaten before – look at Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City over Christmas.

But Blackpool are in terrible form at the minute and Barnsley are struggling down at the bottom so you would have to say they are both very winnable games.

So if Rovers can get a win tomorrow against Derby it would put them in a very good place going into those matches.

It’s not going to be easy though.

Derby are a good side – you can see that from where they are in the table – and since Steve McClaren has gone there he’s surprised me how well he’s done.

I think he always been a first-rate coach, it was just as a manager with England he struggled.

I think that job came too soon for him and you had to feel sorry for him as it was just too early in his career. But league-wise, whatever teams he has coached, he’s always done a good job.

Rovers would certainly like to be where Derby are but a win tomorrow would move them a little closer.

They would have done that last weekend had they won at Nottingham Forest.

There was always the danger that Blackburn would be tired against Forest after the Manchester City FA Cup replay.

Forest are scoring a lot of goals and went into the game on an up after slaughtering West Ham in the FA Cup in the week before.

So it was always going to be a tough game.

But losing has put Rovers under a little bit of pressure to get a result going into tomorrow’s match.

It’s going to be a massive game in a massive week.