Hatters boss Richard Money is looking forward to Saturday's long-awaited return to league action when they make the long-trip to Gateshead.

The visit to the International Stadium will be the Town's first Blue Square Premier fixture in 26 days since a 4-1 victory over Eastbourne Borough and their first competitive game for three weeks since the FA Cup defeat at Southampton.

But despite the cold snap putting pay to league matches and disrupted training, the Town boss is confident that this week's preparation will stand his squad in good stead following a behind closed doors game against Queens Park Rangers and yesterday's reserve fixture at Peterborough.

Talking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Money said: "Everyone who played at QPR played 90 minutes and all the senior players who were involved at Peterborough also got a full 90 under their belts.

"It was really good and has worked out to be incredibly beneficial. We kept all 11 players on the pitch for the QPR game so everyone is fit and raring to go."

For the long trip North East, Money is taking Liam Hatch and Mark Tyler to get them involved in the squad again after lengthily spells on the sidelines, with Hatch given the okay but a specialist on Monday to resume training.

However, Kevin Gallen and Kevin Nicholls are rated "doubtful" for Saturday with hip and ankle problems respectively.

With 23 fixtures left to squeeze in between now and the end of the season, the Hatters' boss believes he needs all the bodies he can to get the best results and touched on the need for bolstering his squad to cope with the busy schedule.

"In the second half of the season we've probably got a midweek match every week and we haven't even rearranged the Salisbury game yet," Money said.

"This fixture list is so congested that there will be changes to the team and the squad will be rotated.

"We need to be able to keep everyone as fresh as possible for this period and change it accordingly but without changing it to affect things too much.

"We've lost a lot of games to the weather and given the circumstances of 23 games in 15 weeks we realise we need as many players as possible but they need to be of the right quality.

"I'm not in a hurry [to go out and buy new players] and it is a bit of a balancing act."

Money returns to the North East for the first time since leaving his post as Academy Director at Newcastle and is expecting a difficult a 90 minutes against a Gateshead side he knows plenty about.

"They've done a terrific job to get where they've got in recent seasons," he said. "They are a very ambitious club.

"I know Ian Bogie, their manager, and he wants to play football.

"By all accounts they came here earlier in the season and played very well against us.

"We had them watched against Forest Green last week and they were very unlucky not to get a result that day.

"It's going to be tough but all games will be in the season half of the season because most teams will have something different to play for."

And with speculation about comings and goings at Kenilworth Road continuing unabated, the Hatters boss was positive on the future of Keith Keane.

He said: "I spoke to Keith again on Monday and I've very hopeful that we can come to some agreement."