|
"It's been a strange time with so many away and we've had only ten outfield players training some days," he said. "We've trained hard though and the other lads have been back with us from Thursday in time to prepare for Burnley.
"Some of the international dates do seem bizarre. I can never work out why we have an international game right at the start of the season. You get the players back on the Friday, one day before your first game.
"We will have a look at the players who have come back and we know it will be a difficult game for us at Burnley. They are in the play-off picture and have a game in hand.
"Eddie Howe did a terrific job at Bournemouth. He goes about his job very quietly, very efficiently. They have a lot of good players, attacking players and they knock the ball around well so we know what's ahead for us."
Howe knows his team have to come out and get back to winning ways after picking up just one point in three games before the break, and, looking at the table, he said: "It's wide open. It's about the team now who puts a run together.
"There are enough clubs in similar positions as us, thinking that they could be the club who are going to do it, but we have to make sure it's us. We've got to give ourselves every opportunity. We've got all the teams to play in and around us, so it's in our own hands and the next few games are going to be crucial."
Following those three games, he added: "The reaction has been positive so I'm hoping for a good performance. I think the players are ready and raring to go. We have had some good training sessions and I've been really pleased with the response from the defeat at Bristol, so now it's a case of putting that into the match situation.
"It's like a mini-league now with nine games to go. We would love to achieve our goals, but as I said before you can talk about it but it's all about doing it out there.