I THOUGHT Gary Bowyer was very clever in giving Jordan Rhodes a rest last weekend against Manchester City.

I thought it was a great idea – and it certainly worked out all right!

Jordan is so important to Blackburn – you can see that by the fact that he plays every league game for them.

But the FA Cup tie was the perfect time to give him a break.

It will have also given the rest of the players confidence, knowing that if Jordan is not in the team, they can still get a result against a side as good as City.

As a player if you’re struggling, there can be the danger of thinking, ‘let’s just get the ball to Jordan and he will get us a goal’, as his record is so good.

But he can’t do it every week, it’s impossible.

I’m sure he will be champing at the bit for tomorrow’s home match with Doncaster.

Blackburn need to go out there, get into them straight away and be ruthless.

An early goal would really knock the stuffing out of Doncaster as they’re not in good form.

Against teams like that an early goal really puts them under pressure and it is a test of how they handle it.

And Rovers should certainly be confident.

It was a great result against Manchester City – you only have to see what they did to West Ham on Wednesday night in the Capital One Cup to see that.

Blackburn proved me completely wrong because, if I’m being honest, I never thought they would be able to get the draw that they did.

And I would imagine 99.9 per cent of the Rovers fans were feeling the same way.

It must be a great confidence boost for the players and, with Rovers just two points off the play-off places, they must be feeling good.

Take away the City game and the last couple of home games haven’t brought good results.

So Rovers have to take the form they shown against City into the game against Doncaster.

The bread and butter is your league form and if Blackburn get that right, they could yet be playing the likes of City week in and week out in the top flight.