STEVE Cotterill feels Burnley are razor-sharp and ready to leave Gillingham green at the gills.

The Clarets, who travel to West Ham United today, finish their Bank Holiday double-header with a Turf Moor clash against the Kent side on Monday (3pm KO).

After that, Cotterill's men can put their feet up and enjoy a well-earned 12-day break before league action resumes again on September 11.

And with Cotterill so far using the same starting line-up in every game, he feels his players are more than ready to meet the challenge of two testing games in 72 hours.

He said: "Our preparation will be different because we don't have the time to prepare for a game that you would normally have.

"But I remember a phase in my management where a lot of the time, when you are playing Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday - the players stay sharp.

"It's sometimes when you go from Saturday to Saturday that you don't always train so hard, because you think you've got to bring the players down and have a rest.

"As a result you lose that sharpness, but at the moment our players are sharp and we're looking for them to stay that way."

Cotterill, who has hardly had time to draw breath since the season started, admitted: "It's hectic, but that hasn't changed since August when we kicked off.

"We haven't had a break in midweek, and the only time we did we had to run around after Manchester United for 90 minutes.

"The players have been magnificent, they've trained hard, got themselves into a good sharpness, they're nice and fit, and hopefully we can continue that for these two games."

Cotterill seems sure to use the mini-break to cast his eye over the loan market, with the Premiership transfer window closing on Tuesday to limit first team opportunities for many players.

That could enable the Clarets to bolster their wafer-thin squad with quality short-term additions.

But in the meantime, captain Robbie Blake believes Burnley's players are benefiting from maintaining a settled side.

"You just have to get on with it," he insisted. "In any squad you are going to have this workload and I would rather play the games than train.

"I am certainly feeling fitter and stronger from playing these first five game in such a short space of time and I'm sure the gaffer will treat us right and give us the right mix of rest, treatment and training to keep everyone up and running.

"These two games in three days are perhaps the biggest test so far, but as long as we can come through the games unscathed, there's no reason why we can't be looking to push on again."