BURNLEY have had their travel plans to Crystal Palace disrupted because of the Pope’s state visit to Britain.

The Clarets had hoped to speed up the journey from East Lancashire to South London by taking the train today.

But with London coming to a standstill as it welcomes Benedict XVI, Burnley have been forced to revert to travelling by coach to avoid mass road blocks in the capital.

“It’s always been a tough place to play and it’s a nightmare journey to make, and that’s one of our concerns with the Pope being in town,” said manager Brian Laws.

“We’re even having to change our route plans because the Friday traffic is going to be horrendous so we’re having to prepare ourselves in a different manner.

“They’re shutting all the roads down so everyone’s heading underground. We were going to go by train, to cut the journey down, but it’s going to affect us because we can’t get the coach in (to the station) to get out.

“There will probably be traffic jams of three or four hours so we’re going to train really early here and then get down there as quickly as we can.”

And Laws hopes his attention to detail pays off as Burnley go in search of their first away win of the season, and only their second in 26 in the league.

Although conceding two late goals to Middlesbrough in midweek made for back-to-back losses on the road, following a 1-0 defeat at Swansea last month, the Clarets boss believes his players are close to clicking.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed because we should have got more out of our away games and we have to address it fairly quickly because you can’t rely on your home form,” he said.

“You have to pick up points away from home. But we’ll get there, I’m very confident of that, and so are the players.

“We’ve got good players and we’ll keep producing the performances and hopefully the results will follow.

“We’re talking about being a whisker away from being right.”

And after handing Chris Eagles and Jack Cork their first league starts at the Riverside, Laws added: “There was some good positive approach play the other night. Chris Eagles had a lot of opportunities down the right hand side and crossed well, Wade (Elliott) had and so did (Tyrone) Mears.

“We had a lot of joy down the wide areas, it was just that final ball in that let us down.

“There’s going to come a time when they hit the right areas and we hopefully get the rewards from it because the possession isn’t a problem.

“We’re getting into some great positions and I don’t want to stop the players from doing that or attempting the passes they’re trying because they’re trying to do the right things.

“It’s not come off at the moment, but it will the more you keep trying.”