Kroca and Lawless back for Eastbourne visit

Victory for the Hatters would see them seal a play-off place, but manager Gary Brabin has a string of injury concerns following a bruising 1-0 defeat at York City on Tuesday night.

He said: “The physio has got his hands full at the moment.

“We will obviously have Alex Lawless back and then there’s one or two other players that I’ve mentioned to that will be playing on Saturday.

“We want to get a winning mentality and it was important to leave Zdenek out to give him a rest.

“He is playing Saturday. I’m trying to shuffle the pack where we are not risking too much.

“We want to get the points to nail down our play-off position but it’s important to see the players deserving their shirts.”

Brabin deliberately used Tuesday night’s game to give all his strikers a chance of playing. He was also conscious to rest his wide men and keen to again try out a 4-3-3 formation like he did at champions Crawley.

He said: “I wanted to try and get all the strikers on the field.

“I was delighted with the players’ honesty and endeavour but we could have done with a bit more quality, although I’m sure that will come.

“I’ve left Claude (Gnakpa) and Robbie Willmott out who have done brilliantly for us.

“Twice I’ve used the 4-3-3. I wanted to use this against those two teams.

“It’s something we need to look at. I feel at times we have been a little bit predictable and we need a Plan B and there’s no better way to practice it then against two of the better sides. I know the players are good enough to do it.”

Town are almost certain to be missing left-back Freddie Murray on Saturday, who was stretchered off with a knee injury believed to be similar to the medial ligament one sustained by striker Danny Crow recently.

Brabin said: “Losing Freddie will be a big blow for us.”

Crow is still some way off a return too as Brabin continued: “He is progressing all the time but still a little bit off at the moment.”

The tactics and line-up for the visit of Eastbourne promises to be very different with Town’s chief adding: “We’ve got our strategy for Saturday, which will definitely be different.

“It’s important we stake down our play-off place but it’s also important I look at the group as a whole.”