IT HAS been a good start to 2017 for Blackburn Rovers with the win over Newcastle and then progressing in the FA Cup against QPR.

Owen Coyle named a strong team for the FA Cup tie and I think it was the right way to go.

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When you are struggling in the league then I believe you do need to look at playing a strong side to try and get results.

The players, particularly when you are struggling, want to get some rhythm to their play and look to try and win games.

I don’t really believe in resting players for the cup competitions, I’ve always thought it’s better to start with your strongest team and then take them off if you get the chance later in the game.

With 2016 out of the way, moving in to 2017 Rovers have got to see it as a fresh start.

When you are struggling you have got to think positively, that’s the only way.

They have won two games at the start of the year which will give them confidence, but they have to now look to keep this run going.

It is important that they kick on and get out of the bottom three as quickly as they can.

I think that’s vital, because with the games ticking away, you can easily get cut adrift.

I would think that a lot of teams didn’t expect Rovers to beat Newcastle and that will have been a bit of a sickener to Rafa Benitez’s title favourites.

Although it was in the FA Cup, going to QPR and winning, other teams will now think that they are on something of a roll having gone three games unbeaten.

We are more than halfway through the season so I think you have got to look at how other teams are getting on.

On a matchday your focus will always be on yourselves and how you do, but I think the manager would look on a Friday and think, ‘Burton have got so-and-so, Wigan are playing X’, and you have an expectation about what other teams will do.

Although the games coming up do look winnable on paper, the players have to show the same qualities that they did in the win against Newcastle.

What the manager has got to stress to the players is that the games will be just as tough as they have been when they have been playing the top four in recent weeks.

Sometimes as a player you can get a bit complacent and think that just because you have beaten Newcastle, it will be easy to beat the sides in mid-table.

But it doesn’t work like that.

You need to show the same commitment, the same energy, as you have done against the top six.

The reason the teams that are in the top six are there is because they have that same mentality no matter who the opposition are.

Rovers need to do the same.