BILLY STARK is confident Scotland's European Championship dreams will not melt in the Bulgarian heat on Thursday.
The Under-21 boss takes his side to Lovech this week for a crucial Euro 2013 qualifier that could see the Scots take a step closer to a place in next summer's finals in Israel.
Stark and his squad jetted out of Glasgow last night, leaving behind a heatwave that has left our shores basking in sunshine in recent days.
Temperatures are expected to soar in Bulgaria but the national coach is sure his babes will be in top condition on Thursday when they take to the field in the Lovech Stadion.
Stark said: "I've arranged for Bulgarian weather just to acclimatise us.
"We weren't expecting that to be fair because that's one of the things you have to factor into it because of the time of the year we are playing when we expect it to be warm over there, but it'll not be any warmer than here.
"The couple of days we had last week and the training sessions we have had in the past few days have been really good.
"You are trying to gauge individual fitness levels as a group and we've been really pleased with what we have seen.
"Now that's training and I'm just putting that in context because at this stage of the season we're just trying to top up a wee bit, but at the same time you've got to watch that we don't overdo it."
Victory for Scotland would put them four points ahead of their Group 10 rivals with just three games to go but they are likely to still trail Holland in the race for top spot as the Dutch travel to minnows Luxembourg.
Star forward Jordan Rhodes joined the squad just hours after helping Huddersfield Town to a place in the npower Championship with a dramatic play-off final win over Sheffield United at Wembley on Saturday.
Rhodes has been linked with a multi-million pound move away from the Yorkshire club, with Celtic one of a number of suitors, but Stark is not convinced a summer move is definitely on the cards for the striker.
He said: "I don't know him that well, but in that situation, speculation starts to mount because he's scoring so many goals.
"He's as level-headed a boy as I've ever come across and at the moment maybe that's just a facade. Underneath he's a raging torrent.
"He's got an agent and there's lots of factors there I don't know about but it wouldn't surprise me if he's a Huddersfield player next year.
"He's scored 40 goals, 46 including ours, so that's very unusual for a player to produce that again in a season, so do the club cash in?
"You would need to ask them. It's about how they view next season and maybe consolidate in the Championship is well worth it financially so I wouldn't be able to guess what will happen there.
"In terms of Jordan, I'm sure if he stayed at Huddersfield, he wouldn't go in the huff or anything like that. He'd be getting down to it full pelt."