BLACKBURN Rovers are in a very good position going into the international break.

Once we return to action it is going to be a really crucial period.

The run of games up to Christmas are so important because that’s when everything starts to take shape and when you can start to judge where your season is going.

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The good thing is we go into these matches with a lot of confidence on the back of our seven-game unbeaten run.

The run means we are just one point behind the play-offs and five from the top.

That’s a definite improvement on most of last season when we always seemed to be fighting against the points and trying to play catch up.

We finished the season really strongly but at one point one game became one too many.

We don’t want that happening again. We want to be right on the shirt tails of the teams above us, like we currently are, or even better, leading the pack.

When you look at our squad and the strength and quality of the teams around us, you would take finishing in the play-offs.

But of course the play-offs are a big gamble and that’s why you should always aim for first or second and those automatic promotion places.

To do that we’re going to have to show even more consistency and stop having halves when we’re biting our fingernails and other halves when we’re playing fantastic football, scoring great goals and getting results.

If we can find more consistency within a single match itself, then that should mean more wins and that would put us even closer, or among, the top two.

Obviously you’ve got to take into consideration the opposition and I think the Championship is getting harder.

But you’ve still got to strive to get consistency and, despite it being such a tough league to predict, you can get it.

We got it at the end of last season and we’re getting it again now.

Okay there are certain games that we have drawn, like Millwall away, which we should have won, but we are picking up points and we are not getting beaten.

Hopefully the lads will come back off the international break freshened up and ready to go on a run again.

It would not surprise me if Gary Bowyer gets the lads in for a few hard days and then gives them some time off before going again next week.

It’s good to have a break but it’s also an ideal opportunity, with just Rudy Gestede, Grant Hanley and Corry Evans away, to work on your shape, work on your attacking and defending systems, and work on your set-pieces.

You’ve just got to keep drilling information into the players so that it sticks and becomes automatic.

You can see that’s what been happening at Blackburn and that’s why we are really getting results.