OWEN Coyle insists preparations for the visit of Alex McLeish’s men in three days time have run smoothly during the current international break.

The Clarets will hope to climb back into the Championship’s play-offs with a victory - and tough fixtures against Coventry, Charlton and Reading follow thick and fast.

“The international break has been the same as any other,” said Coyle.

“The bottom line is that we’ve all got to get on with it.

“The lads have been great, and I gave them a couple of days off over the weekend.

“We need to prepare the players in the right way, as we’ve got a heady period of games coming up.

“It's going to be a difficult against Birmingham - they are the league leaders and have an unbelievable squad.

“But as I’ve said before, when we play at our best, we can win any match in this football league.”

Coyle has been spared injuries to Graham Alexander and Martin Paterson, who were both unused subsitutes for Scotland and Northern Ireland in their respective World Cup qualifiers last Saturday.

Striker Paterson, 21, with five Northern Ireland caps to his name, will now look to earn a run-out from boss Nigel Worthington in tonight’s Group Three tussle with San Marino in Belfast.

On Worthington’s decision not to hand Paterson an appearance against Slovenia at the weekend, Coyle said: “I can’t really comment on that.

"Whether Martin gets picked is nothing to do with me.

"I can only focus on preparing my own players.”