JOHN McGuinness readied himself for the Isle of Man TT with another creditable display of the track.

The Heysham hero steered his Padgett's Honda into ninth place at Snetteron in the British Supersport Championship - a result which took him into fifth place in the standings.

The pace was hot and positions were exchanged on each and every lap. The front four riders had broken away but fifth place was anyone's and, by lap nine, McGuinness was back in eighth but closing on the riders in front.

But he was shuffled to the back of the pack on the final lap only to perfect the final corner to haul himself to ninth.

The bike ace is aware that TT time starts on Saturday with the first practice sessions but he warns: "All people seem to want to talk to me about at the moment is the TT and whilst it's probably my most important race of the year, I'm still racing in the British Championship and trying to do the very best.

"Whilst it has been at the back of my mind, I was giving 100 per cent and it was a very tough race with places swapping right, left and centre. I dug deep and tried hard throughout. It was a bit of a damage limitation race but with a good drive down the straight I just managed to pip him to the line.

"I was only fractions away from fifth in the race and although the top four riders are slightly out of reach at the moment, I've moved into fifth in the championship and we've every chance of picking up the pieces.

"The bikes are handling superbly at the moment and I can't ask for anything more from them so this bodes very well for the TT.

"We've had good preparation on all of the bikes so I'll approach it in my usual manner and we should be in contention in all of the races."