DURING his time at Manchester City, Garry Flitcroft played in a host of derbies with fierce rivals Manchester United.

But the 27-year-old Rovers skipper today admitted he has never experienced anything quite like the fervour surrounding the first league clash between Blackburn and Burnley in 17 years.

"I've played in about five local derbies but I've never known as much local pride at stake as their appears to be with this," said Flitcroft.

"I was never really aware of it before but it seems to have come to a head this season with us both being in the same division again.

"There's a couple of local lads in the squad with the likes of Dunny and that and they've had a bit of banter off their mates.

"So he comes in and tells us what people have said.

"But we'll just get down to it and try and try and enjoy the occasion as much as everyone else."

During his time with City, Flitcroft was never on the winning side in a derby -- his best result being a 1-1 draw.

But, as underdogs, the men from Maine Road always made life difficult for Alex Ferguson's aristocrats from Old Trafford.

And he expects a similar type of battle to unfold at Turf Moor on Sunday.

"People never expected us to win against United but we always had tough games with them," said Flitcroft.

"But then that's what derbies are like.

"Form goes right out of the window in games like this, it's like a big cup tie, the challenges tend to fly in and there's usually not much football played.

"But we've just got to buckle down until someone can get the ball down and then we can play our stuff then. "We know it's going to be tough but we're confident we can get something from the game.

"Burnley have done brilliantly this season, they've got a team of battlers, Stan's got them well organised and they're going to be hard to break down.

"We've got quality in our team, though, and, hopefully, that will shine through on the day.

"We haven't had the best of runs of late but I'd be more worried if we weren't creating chances."

With games against Crystal Palace, Birmingham, Crewe and Norwich to come in a busy Christmas period, it's vital Rovers kick off the festive programme with a good result to keep among the leading pack.

Yet, local pride aside, Flitcroft insists it's not the end of the world if Rovers were to lose on Sunday.

"This is the time when you've got to start getting results," said Flitcroft.

"Where you are after Christmas tends to be where you'll stay so we've got to keep ourselves in the race.

"We've got two tough games in Burnley and Crystal Palace coming up and we've got to be looking to take four points and maybe even six from those games which is going to be tough.

"So three points are vital for us at this stage of the season.

"We're six points behind Bolton with a game in hand and, though we've slipped up recently, we still believe we've got ourselves into a good position -- probably better than we've been in all season.

"So we can only go on from here and, hopefully, get right up there.

"We know what it means to the fans, but it's not the end of our season if we lose on Sunday."