SCOTLAND'S MILES BETTER

Hearts manager George Burley insists the 157-mile trip to Inverness for their Bank of Scotland Premier League clash with the Highlanders is a mere jaunt compared to his days in England.

The league leaders make their longest journey of the season tomorrow, looking to extend their unbeaten run in the SPL to seven games.

However, the former Ipswich and Derby manager refuted any notions of possible travel fatigue among his players.

He said: "You haven't got many long journeys in Scotland and this is a short one for me, especially when you consider that I've also played for Ipswich and Sunderland.

"England is a big country and Friday especially is a shocking day to travel.

"You can have times where you are travelling for five or six hours, easily.

"And if you've spent six hours on a coach and you get to the hotel maybe eight or nine o'clock at night then it's not great preparation for the Saturday game.

"But I've never been up to Inverness as a manager or a player and so I'm looking forward to a nice little trip up north and so are the rest of the team."

Burley claims having to deal with fewer games in Scotland also meets with his approval.

He said: "In the Championship in England there are 46 league games which is a lot in addition to a lot of cup games.

"The little negative aspect of being at Hearts is that there is an international week in October and we'll have 11 international players away again.

"But I prefer not to have so many club games so you can work with the players and prepare them properly for the game on the Saturday."

Despite winning their first six SPL games in impressive style the general consensus in football is that the Gorgie men's first real test will come against Rangers at Tynecastle on Saturday week.

However, Jambos utility player Jamie McAllister claims Caley will offer up a tough challenge too.

He said: "There is a danger that people will just keep expecting us to win until the Rangers game.

"But we're not interested in Rangers at the moment, we're concentrating on Inverness because it's a big three points.

"And as the gaffer said at the team meeting, every game is only three points.

"We want to win this game and then the Rangers game will take care of itself.

"It's by no means an easy game so we have to go up there, keep playing the way we have been playing and hopefully get the breaks to win."

Taken from sportinglife.com