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" It's difficult to prepare for this game, we did talk in pre-season about our form on the road on a Tuesday night and we looked at different strategies like perhaps travelling on a Monday. I think though that it is inappropriate in this case, we're leaving quite early at 9.30am. We're going to get up there, have some dinner in a hotel and let the lads have a good rest and sleep in the afternoon, hopefully they'll then be fully refreshed for the game in the evening.
" It's a tough one, they've been able to name a consistent side throughout the season and have therefore had consistent results. Unfortunately for us we've lost another couple of players and I think we're only travelling with the sixteen remaining professionals. We've got a decent side and a decent game-plan though so let's hope that we can go up there now and the preparations pay off.
" Unfortunately Paul Tierney, he trained yesterday but came down ill and Chris Adamson has picked up an injury from Saturday and hasn't been able to train so we are down to the last sixteen fit professionals. So it's a bizarre situation but I'm just glad that I've got sixteen on the bus going North. We've got a decent side that we'll put out tonight, it's the strongest team that we can field and we'll take it from there.
" That's football, we said at the start of the season that to do well this season we need a stronger squad so that we could iron out some of the inconsistent patches from last season. It's turned out this year that we've more than needed this squad. We've had an incredible amount of injuries and it's a difficult period because you can't get any consistency in your training or your team selection. We just have to keep working through it.
" On the bright side of that young players are getting opportunities to get blooded and I'm looking forward to seeing a few of them in action tonight. To see if they can build on previous performances and we'll move on from there. Because we are going to need a strong squad now going into next weekend with a game on the Saturday and a game on the Monday. "
As Gannon has already mentioned County have numerous players missing for different reasons. Starting with the un-injured Preston-loanee midfielder Adam Nowland is cup-tied after featuring for Gillingham earlier in the competition, while fellow midfielder Jason Taylor is out suspended.
Going onto the wounded, as far as defenders are concerned, ex-United loan signing Paul Tierney (illness), recent North-West League Two Player of the Year winner Ashley Williams (knee) and Rob Clare (shin) are all missing from the Hatters' squad tonight.
In midfield Dominic Blizzard is snowed under with a hamstring problem while David Poole (shin) and Gary Dicker (ankle ligaments) are also sidelined. Three 50-50 cases for the match this evening though are wingers Anthony Pilkington (muscle soreness) and Adam Griffin (toes), and right-back Michael Bowler (calf).
In good news and bad news for County second-choice goalkeeper Chris Adamson picked up an injury in the 1-1 draw against Staines on Saturday. So Adamson will be replaced tonight by Conrad Logan, who, despite being on a season-long loan from Leicester City, was surprisingly not allowed to play in the FA Cup tie by his parent club.
The referee for tonight's match is Jonathan Moss from Leeds, and he will be assisted down the lines by Richard Hewitt from Scarborough and Paul Kettlewell from Lancaster. Meanwhile the fourth official will be 20-year old Ross Joyce from Middlesbrough.