IT’S been a great week of football, what with the Scotland games against Ireland and England, and what better way to end it than Blackburn versus Leeds at Ewood on Saturday?

As a player this is the kind of match you want to play in.

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There will be a big, noisy crowd with the possibility of an intimidating atmosphere.

I know I used to love taking on Leeds.

We had some great battles over the years and we always looked forward to going up against the likes of David Batty, Gary McAllister and the late Gary Speed.

The crowds that back Leeds are phenomenal and I see they will be bringing up to 7,000 with them on Saturday.

It is the kind of backing that suggests to me that, if they do get back up into the Premier League, they could still be a force.

But at the moment they’re still going through difficult times and it is Blackburn who are looking on the up.

Form is certainly on our side but I always believe that we should be winning our home games.

I haven’t seen anyone better than Blackburn at Ewood this season, Derby aside, and that’s why I fully believe we have the players capable of beating Leeds on Saturday to keep us right on the coat-tails of the top six or right in amongst them.

It’s important that we do that as, while we are going into a spell where it is just one game a week, before you know it will be Christmas time and the schedule will start to get hectic, the weather will change, the pitches will change and, with injuries and suspensions, the personnel too.

So that’s why we have to keep putting points on the board going into that busy spell.

Speaking of busy, Blackburn captain Grant Hanley has certainly been that this week.

I really enjoyed the Scotland-Ireland game on Friday, it was a typical British football match rather than what you usually get in international football.

I know a lot of people said it was too physical but I don’t think it was.

I think it was played in the right spirit, with some good tackles, and we didn’t really have to mention the referee, apart from the incident involving Grant.

I will always side with Grant but I think he was lucky to still be on the pitch for that foul on Shane Long.

Grant is doing well for Scotland, forming a good partnership with Russell Martin, but that moment proved you cannot afford to switch off at that level as otherwise you will get caught out.

Here’s hoping Grant played in last night’s friendly with Scotland.

He certainly won’t have wanted to miss it and he certainly won’t want to miss the game against Leeds on Saturday.