Hatters' boss Jim Gannon is eyeing up a concerted push towards the League Two play-off positions during February.

Gannon has been weighing up his squad strength and was speaking about next month in the aftermath of last Friday's full scale practise match at the Manor Farm training ground between two strong County teams, a game which ended 3-3.

Ahead of last night's (Jan 29) home League Two clash against Chesterfield, County hadn't played a competitive game for more than a fortnight, but the squad is healthy and confident, and, of course, in good form.

Gannon said after Friday's match: "We changed a few things around at half-time and tinkered with a couple of shapes, but some of the players certainly impressed me.

"There are certain players that you can rely on to perform well, while there are others I'm not sure about, but right now there are 17 or 18 players pushing hard for 11 starting spots.

"What good strength in depth we have now, and what characters we have.

"We'll have a strong squad available and we'll no doubt have a strong starting line-up for the Chesterfield game."
Gannon went on: "Tuesday presents a chance for us to maybe sneak into the top seven if we win, but if we don't do that we'll still have games in hand to maybe get in there at a later date.

"That's the challenge for us now.

"I'm conscious that we've missed a couple of games and we've fallen away a little bit, but the Chesterfield game can set the tone for February.

"We've got a big month ahead, a lot of games, and a lot of winnable games.

"Some will be tough tests against teams below us in the table, but I'll be looking at February to give us an opportunity to make a real assault on the play-off positions."

Meanwhile, Gannon went on to praise centre-backs Gareth Owen and skipper Ashley Williams, who both played a full 90 minutes on Friday following injuries, and recent capture Leon McSweeney.

Twenty-four-year-old attacking midfielder McSweeney, who joined the Hatters from Cork City as soon as the January transfer window opened, was a substitute against Notts County and Grimsby Town, and then turned in an impressive performance when starting in the 2-0 win against Accrington Stanley.

Gannon added: "Leon's got great feet, he's a good passer, and he reads the game well both defensively and attacking wise.

"He's not really a target man because of his lack of physical height, but playing in behind the front men, dropping into holes, playing people in, he can be a real threat up front.

"He played really well on Friday with Liam Dickinson and Adam Proudlock, so I'd say he'll be pushing for a start against Chesterfield."

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