Murray back in the mix for Hatters but Willmott misses out

The new signing missed making his England C debut on Wednesday night after suffering a hip injury in training, and hasn’t recovered in time for the visit of Fleetwood.

Manager Richard Money said: “Unfortunately he’ll miss this weekend, but not any longer than that we think. He’ll probably be back in training on Monday or Tuesday next week.”

Defender Freddie Murray is back in contention for the first time in almost three months, after a hernia operation.

The boss continued: “Freddie Murray is back in the group and will be in the squad.

“Shane Blackett will probably train Monday or Tuesday of next week too. It’s looking a pretty healthy group of players at the minute.”

Opponents Fleetwood are in with a definite shout of the play-offs this season, sitting in fifth place with top scorer Magno Viera having netted an impressive 17 league goals already.

They haven’t won on their travels for three games though, but Money is anticipating a high quality encounter.

He said: “They’ve been up there all year and I saw them at Wimbledon last week, where they were very unfortunate not to get something out of the game.

“They will want to come here and put that right and they need to win for their own reasons.

“There are a gang of clubs grouping up behind them to challenge for that play-off spot, it’s a big game for both teams.

“I don’t have any doubts in my mind that they will come here and try and win the game. They should try and play football, so the onus is always on us to play well.

“If both teams play extremely well then it should make for a good game.”

The Kenilworth Road pitch has been a bone of contention for Money in recent weeks, but he is confident of a good surface on Saturday, despite the recent deluge of rain.

He continued: “I think the rain will help it. We’d already made our minds up that we were going to wet it in any case, as it’s a better surface when it’s wet.

“I’m pretty confident the groundsman will have a decent surface. It’s the seventh home game in a row and he’s done pretty well to keep it going.”

Full-back Jake Howells, who was on England duty in midweek insisted that Conference newcomers Fleetwood had impressed a number of his fellow Three Lions’ team-mates this season.

He said: “They’re a good team Fleetood. A few of the lads from the others teams said Fleetwood were a good passing team so it should be a good test for us.

“But I think we’re good enough. We’ve got a god enough squad and will try to get the three points.”

That view was echoed by fellow England C winger Amari Morgan-Smith, who said: “I’ve heard they get the ball down and play the ball quite well, but so do we and hopefully it could be a good encounter.”

It promises to be an crucial weekend for the Hatters too, as along with their match, leaders AFC Wimbledon host York City, while Crawley Town entertain in-form Wrexham, and then travel to the Welsh side on Tuesday night.

Morgan-Smith added: “I was rooming with (Wrexham striker) Andy Mangan and he said they can get four points off them (Crawley) and that would be a good result. He was also saying that we’ll (Wrexham) get promoted and he won’t be in the England C team next year!

“We’ll see what happens. We’ve just got to win ourselves and let the other results take care of themselves.”