TO let in six goals once is bad enough, to do it twice is even worse and even now we are scratching our heads as to what went wrong on Saturday.

Just when you think everything is going well, you are climbing the table and getting close to the play-offs, that happens.

It seems to happen to us every now and again and we need to cut it out. We let in five at Man City last season, we did the same at Blackburn the year before.

We all hoped that the match at Grimsby was just a one-off, a freak, but that is not how it has turned out.

The most annoying thing about the Rotherham game is we had just got a great result against Forest but we just seemed to get taken by surprise.

It was a very disappointing display and we can't afford to play like that if we are to make the play-offs. We have to try and put together a run of wins and that now has to start at Gillingham on Saturday.

The first division is unbelievably tight at the minute with very little to separate the sides that are below Portsmouth and Leicester, the runaway top two.

We showed a couple of years ago that if you can put a run together you can have a real shot at the play-offs and I seem to recall Wimbledon going about 19 games unbeaten before we went down there and beat them.

Christmas will obviously be an important spell for us and at least we have got a couple of overnight trips before the next two away games at Gillingham and Brighton. We are not making excuses but it is far from ideal to travel such long distances on the day of the game and then play. Night matches you might just get away with but it is hard when it is for a game on a Saturday afternoon.

And I have got a lot of sympathy for the fans because they have been properly stitched up by the fixture computer. I just hope we will make the trips worthwhile for those who head down south. Why we can't have games against teams like Preston, Bradford or the Sheffield sides, I have no idea.

In all honesty I have no great fondness for Gillingham and I can only ever remember beating them once.

Mind you that was back in April at Turf Moor so having broken that hoo-doo perhaps it is time to end the one down at the Priestfield. We've beaten them at home, let's beat them away.

It is not an easy place to go and their home form last season was good, although it has not been so clever this time around.

WHEN people ask me what I want for Christmas I admit I have to scratch my head.

As my mum says: "What do you get for the boy who has everything?"

But seriously, I would be happy just to pick up a few wins over the Christmas period, close the gap on the top six and get a decent helping of turkey.

But I do wish all Clarets fans across the world a very merry Christmas and let's hope that it will be an even happier New Year.

The ultimate gift would be a place in the play-offs and if we can get that, I'm sure all Burnley fans would be more than happy.