It’s ridiculous - when I looked at the schedule, I just thought the next few weeks are going to be so hard.

You need to start off on a good foot because a large number of games can quickly go past you in the click of the fingers and we will be into the New Year.

And it comes down to the players, you can do all the coaching and planning but you need to give responsibility to the players to make sure they are right for the games.

You have to trust the players - especially over the Christmas period - and I think that is key.

Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke shouts - Mandatory by-line: Matt McNulty/JMP - 11/11/2017 - FOOTBALL - Glanford Park - Scunthorpe, England - Scunthorpe United v Bristol Rovers - Sky Bet League One

I can’t emphasise this enough, with players, if you want to be at the top end of the table at the end of the season you have to make sacrifices. And the smallest sacrifices are the smallest things - don’t have that mince pie. You have to be totally professional and Christmas doesn’t exist for you in a lot of ways.

I know you have got kids and it’s difficult, and the pressure from partners, wives and family but for football players Christmas doesn’t exist and this is crunch time in terms of Bristol Rovers’ season because there are so many games in such a short space of time.

You are asking players to go that extra mile, can they play when they are feeling a niggle, are you prepared to put yourself on the line - the good thing is I think Rovers have players who will do that.

Bristol Rovers players look dejected after conceding a late goal to Scunthorpe

The performance against Scunthorpe was exactly what I wanted, do everything you can to get a 0-0 and I thought they had done enough to get the point but the goal they conceded was just heart-breaking because it was avoidable, and I felt for them.

So Darrell Clarke has got a big job picking them up, because they put everything into it. You cannot question their attitude, their desire, their effort. You can question some of their decision making and missing a few headers though.

Darrell needs to concentrate on what was good on Saturday. But if they can get a result early in this run of games their luck could change. So AFC Wimbledon at home is a massive game for them.

Liam Sercombe

In that game in Scunthorpe I saw a change in mentality, I know Darrell has mentioned a siege mentality, and you just want to go out and get a clean sheet - they were seconds away from achieving that.

If they had done it they would have been full of confidence, that won’t be there this week so I think it is for the fans in the first 20 minutes to get behind the players like I know they will.

The players need to go out like they did against Scunthorpe, with the mindset to start accumulating points.