THERE’S no question that Rovers have been handed a tough start to the campaign – and one look at their opponents for the next four fixtures would suggest it’s only going to get tougher.

Make no mistake the home clashes with Wigan Athletic, Derby County and Watford and trip to Fulham will be further tests of their aspirations to improve on the eighth-placed finish they recorded last time out.

But should Rovers go into these next two weeks with something to fear?

Absolutely not.

Last season at Ewood Park they beat both Wigan and Watford – and more comfortably than the margin of victories suggested – and were within six minutes of doing the same against Derby.

And Rovers’ league record in front of their own fans over the calendar year and the last 12 months is impressive.

They have lost just twice at home in 2014 – both inside the space of four days, the second a direct consequence of the former, a painful derby defeat to Burnley – and twice more in the period between September 11 and December 31, 2013.

That’s just four defeats in their last 22 Championship matches on their own patch.

While we can’t quite call Ewood a fortress yet, with eight of those 22 matches ending in draws, Gary Bowyer has certainly made his team an extremely difficult one to beat at home and Wigan, on Saturday, and Derby and Watford after that, will not be anticipating their visits to Blackburn with relish.

A good return from those three games will set Rovers up nicely for what, on paper at least, looks a more forgiving end to September and start to October.

And, given Fulham’s start to the campaign, who says they cannot go to Craven Cottage and return home with all three points?

To do that Rovers will have to cut out the sloppy goals they continue to give away on their travels.

They were their masters of their own downfall at Wolves last time around, meaning the long periods of possession and pressure they enjoyed were totally in vain.

Since then Bowyer has boosted his squad with the arrivals of a goalkeeper, a defender and a midfielder.

Players and coaches speak highly at the way the Rovers boss deals with players who are not in his starting line-up, explaining why that is the case.

And no doubt he is going to have to undertake two or three more of those conversations now that he has assembled a squad, while still not the biggest, is genuinely competitive.

However, no matter who gets the nod against Wigan, Derby, Fulham and Watford, these next four matches should not be viewed as fraught with danger to drop points, but as an opportunity to lay down a marker for the rest of the season.