I ALWAYS said the two games over Christmas would dictate a lot and we’ve had a defeat and a draw.

That’s one point from six when the least we wanted to take out of Bolton on Boxing Day and Middlesbrough on Sunday was two.

So the results have definitely been under par over the festive period and now we are where we are, five points off the play-offs.

We’re still only halfway through the season but those results have certainly made it a tougher climb.

The positive for me was the first-half performance against Bolton.

I thought Blackburn were brilliant, the best I’ve seen them play for a long time.

They were fast out of the traps and they had a real go at Bolton.

It’s how I’d like to see Blackburn play more.

I know you can’t do it for 90 minutes but I don’t think you should ever be scared of teams.

You’ve just got to get out there and think you can beat your opponent - even if they are the best team on the planet.

I’ve said it many times before I think that’s when Blackburn are at their best.

On another day Jordan Rhodes would have scored a hat-trick and they would have been three or four up at half time.

But we didn’t take our chances and at the moment whenever our defenders make a mistake, they are getting punished for it.

The game changed at half time when Emile Heskey came on.

All of a sudden our two centre halves thought, ‘wow, we’re in for a physical battle’.

Bolton did to Blackburn what we had done to them in the first half and unfortunately we just couldn’t recover from the two goals they scored in three minutes.

It was a downer to say the least because after the first 45 minutes, and apart from that spell in the second half, we deserved to get something out of the game at the Macron Stadium.

But in a way I can accept a defeat away from home rather than dropping two points at home, like we did against Middlesbrough.

Don’t get me wrong, I watched the game up at the Riverside and Boro are a decent side.

But that makes it all the more important to take points off them.

If we would have beaten Boro on Sunday the gap between us would have been five points.

Instead it’s eight and we’re playing catch-up again.

This weekend gives us a break from Championship action as we travel to Charlton in the third round of the FA Cup.

I know there may be a temptation for Rovers to ring the changes but my opinion is you should always play your strongest side no matter the match.

A win could give us the little bit of momentum we need to kick on again.