BURNLEY'S players are currently out in Portugal as they prepare for the FA Cup tie against Fulham on Sunday afternoon.

And if they come back with their batteries recharged and firing on all cylinders it could be the best few grand the club has spent this season.

My one big regret is that the local reporter did not get the chance to go with them.

Reports suggest that Leicester City's creditors are angry that the club has taken its players off to the Algarve at a time when they cannot pay all their debts.

Burnley's financial problems are nothing like as severe as the Foxes' but it is no secret that money is tight.

But anyone who believes that clubs are flushing money down the pan funding such trips is being short-sighted to almost bat-like proportions.

Leicester boss Micky Adams clearly believes that the trip away will help his side get over the finishing line in good style and return to the Premiership. Once back in that "Land of Milk and Honey", the creditors can at last start expecting a bit of money to come their way.

It is well know that everyone at Turf Moor has worked hard this season to get the finances on something resembling an even keel. That included persuading the club's creditors to take a payments holiday until January 2005 - but it was not done to fund a players' holiday.

This trip to Portugal is very much business rather than pleasure and has been afforded because the first team has moved in its fair share of notches as the belts have been tightened. Spending five, six or seven hours on a coach to places like Reading and Ipswich for an evening kick-off is far from ideal but it is something that the players have done because they are aware that needs must.

But those same players have battled through to the last 16 of first the Worthington Cup and now the FA Cup.

Of course the odds will be stacked against them at the weekend and a few days in the warmer climes of Portugal will be no guarantee of success.

But it has given everyone a lift and a chance to train away from the quagmire that is so often Gawthorpe.

Sometimes in life you need to speculate to accumulate. The football season is a long hard one with little chance of being able to get away between July and May.

Over the next few weeks the Clarets will have a hectic schedule with plenty of midweek games as they continue to chase the play-off dream.

So the success of this week's trip must not be judged on Sunday alone, although just earning a replay would more than cover any costs incurred.

The big picture has to be looked at and in the scheme of things the sum spent this week is a drop in the ocean compared to the £4million lost when ITV Digital went belly-up.

This trip was the right thing to do at just the right time. Now all that Burnley fans want is the right result at Loftus Road.