Leading scorer Jonny Margetts is closing on a return for a resurgent King’s Lynn Town side.

Margetts suffered fractures in his second, third and fourth vertebrae in the home defeat to Curzon back in early September - the last time Lynn were beaten in the league.

Manager Adam Lakeland has found success with and without a natural striker in the six matches Margetts has missed, but the 31-year-old, who has four goals in six starts, is a huge influencer of games.

Margetts was given positive news from a specialist last week and went through a lengthy running session on his own before the weekend game against Leamington at The Walks.

“The news that he got was probably as positive as it could be, and there's every chance,” said Lakeland after that game.

“He needs to have a period of contact training just to make sure that everything's okay, but he's been running all week, he's been running hard, joined in aspects of training on Friday that was non contact and he looked sharp.

“We're not going to rush because when he's back, we need him to be back for as long as possible. But he's certainly closer than we felt he might be a week or so ago, which is great news for him and for us.”

Lakeland’s “gut feeling” that he could operate without out-and-out strikers has worked, although Josh Hmami’s injury absence has prevented further use of the ‘experiment’ with him playing in a more advanced midfield role.

Hmami is unlikely to feature at third-placed Chorley on Saturday, but striker Gold Omotayo is always one of Lakeland’s options – although the striker-less one was never on the cards until recently.

“I don't think I've ever played without a striker in the whole time I've been managing,” said Lakeland.

“But sometimes I just get a feeling. I've managed nearly 400 games since I started managing at Northwich and probably one of the biggest things I've learned about myself is I have to trust my gut, because usually my gut's right.

“And I just had a feeling before the Buxton game that Hmami could give us something up there. It's one of them as a manager, it could have backfired, he could have been poor and we could have lost the game and then I get pelters.

“But if it goes the other way, then I'm a genius - I prefer the latter.

“But I just had a feeling about him. I thought he played really well, he was great again on Tuesday night (at Oxford City), but this is why you need a strong squad.

“It won’t have done Gold or Theo (Williams) any harm and to have seen him going up there and doing well because it shows that there's other players in the building that can do that role.

“I said to the players before the game (against Leamington), you only have to look at the squad we've got, one to 20.

“We've got unbelievable strength in depth and the lads know that when they're in the team, if they don't play well, then there's a possibility that they could come out of it and that's why at the minute, everybody to a man is generally performing.”

Omotayo has started the last two games, impressing Lakeland with his performance against Leamington.

“If felt Gold was very good,” he said. “It's probably as good as I've seen him, and I want to see and I expect to see that more because I know he's capable of that type of performance. But I need him to replicate that every time he's on the pitch for me.”

While Lynn head north defending a six-game unbeaten record, their hosts have lost just once in their last six, at Alfreton.