IT WAS a big statement for Rovers to pick up their first win of the season and end Bradford’s long unbeaten home run on Saturday, writes Simon Garner.

Bradford is not an easy place to go and it will be a big confidence boost to the players.

Winning 1-0 away from home is always a good result. We used to do it a lot when Howard Kendall was in charge, if we could go away and win 1-0 we’d be very happy.

The players should get confidence from it and I think they have realised after a few games how tough it is in this league workrate wise and how much other teams will want to beat them.

Rovers can play football, they have good footballers, they just need to know that they have to put a shift in.

You have to do the basics to start with.

You can have the best players in the world but if you don’t do the basics right as a team then you will get nowhere.

When they work harder than the opposition then they have the players in the side to win games. 

At home, on a good playing surface, if they can work as hard as the opposition then they can look to play their football even more.

I can see them turning a corner and hopefully going on a good run.

Next up is an East Lancashire derby with Burnley and a game which is massive to the fans.

It doesn’t matter about the difference in the divisions, it’s a massive game.

When I was a player we were in the same league and it was the first game that you looked for when the fixtures came out.

Burnley have done well to get in the Premier League, you can’t take that away from them.

With us being in League One, Burnley have to be favourites to win the game but the players need to know how much it means to the fans.

In my day a lot of the players were local, so knew what the fans expected.

The players will need to understand what it means to the fans and to the people of Blackburn. Straight away it was drummed in to me when I joined the club.

When I was there as an apprentice and I watched a derby, you could tell from the town and how the fans were getting ready for the game, and how they were excited by it, just how much it meant.

On matchdays it’s unbelievable.

I was lucky that I scored against them quite a few times – it was an unbelievable feeling to score against Burnley. 

I just had a happy knack of scoring against them most of the time I played against them which didn’t go down too well, and still doesn’t, with the Burnley fans.

I think Tony Mowbray will put his strongest side out because the fans will almost demand it and hopefully Rovers can get the win.