ROVERS stopper Brad Friedel said the team were exhausted but happy after the frantic festive period.

In 13 hectic days, Rovers won through to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup and then picked up nine points from their Premiership games against Middlesbrough, Wigan and Porstmouth.

And the schedule could have been worse had the game against Sunderland on December 28 not fallen foul of the weather.

And the American keeper said that teams across the league had suffered because of the busy schedule and he blamed tiredness as the reason so many goals had been scored.

"Overall, what it does is make games a touch sloppy," said Friedel.

"I think you saw across the Premier League there were goals flying in all over the place, there wasn't a 0-0 on Monday.

"That is what happens, people get tired, mentally tired and switch off a little bit, but if you can get the three points then you've done your job.

"To come away with nine points over the Christmas period is fantastic.

"We'll take a lot of positives out of this little period, but we've got QPR ahead and two games against Manchester United so it is all to play for."

And that view was echoed by striker Paul Dickov who said that European football returning to Ewood Park was a realistic proposition after Rovers climbed to eighth in the Premiership table - their highest position under Mark Hughes. Dickov grabbed Rovers' winner in the 2-1 win over Portsmouth - his seventh in all competitions this season and said expectations at Ewood Park were high. "It was a big win for us," he said.

"That's four on the trot now, and we are going in the right direction,"

"It is going well. The team is going well, and we are picking up a few results.

"The manager has always said we can be a top-10 team and we are eighth now so why not look to Europe?"