Halifax manager Adam Lakeland says he is looking up the table rather than over his shoulder ahead of Town's home game with Gateshead on Tuesday.

The Shaymen's 1-0 win over Truro on Saturday, thanks to Will Harris' 21st goal of the season, kept Town two points ahead of Southend in the battle for the final play-off place, with Southend having three games in hand.

But a win against Gateshead would put Halifax only four points below sixth placed Forest Green Rovers, and that is what Lakeland says should be the focus.

"I don't think you can spend your life looking over your shoulder, everybody keeps talking to me about Southend but I'm not really bothered about Southend," said the Town boss.

"I'm looking at, coming into Saturday, Forest Green were ahead of us and they're the ones we want to try and catch.

"We're going to have to be very, very good to catch a club that's got a £6m budget, but I think we've reduced the deficit to them now, with a game in hand.

"You can't spend your life looking over your shoulder. Southend are a very good team, they've got games in hand.

"We've got a couple of points advantage on them at the moment, but we've just got to keep looking ahead to the next game and looking to the teams above us and seeing if we can keep trying to reduce that deficit.

"It was only probably ten weeks ago that we were about 14, 15 points behind Forest Green and now we're seven points behind.

"So we've just got to focus on ourselves."

Gateshead are bottom of the table, and 11 points adrift of safety after a dreadful season in which they've won only five of their 29 league games.

"We're at that stage of the season now where games are running out and points are incredibly valuable," said Lakeland.

"So whether you're up at the top end of the league or down near the bottom of the league, everybody's fighting tooth and nail for points.

"We've played Aldershot, Brackley and Truro, three teams that are down there, fighting for points, and every game's been physically and mentally very demanding.

"Tuesday against Gateshead will be absolutely no different, it'll be a very difficult game and one that we'll need to play well in to win."

Midfielder Jay Turner-Cooke might be available for the game tomorrow night, said Lakeland.

"Possibly. He's passed most of his tests.

"He'll train Monday and all being well, he's got a chance of being involved on Tuesday."

But defender Will Smith won't have recovered from his calf injury in time for the game.

Winger Max Wright is back running after a groing injury but there's still no timeline on a possible return to action for him.

Defender Dylan Crowe is nearing a return having not played since November 15.

"He's doing great, he's taking part in a lot of training now," said Lakeland.

"He's doing great with his running - change of directions, accels, decels.

"So he's not far away at all, which is another bonus for us."

And on forward Jamie Cooke's recovery, Lakeland said: "He's another one who's made great progress.

"I think Pete (Bailey, physio) deserves great credit for the way that he's managed his programme, there's now a proper programme in place for him.

"I think he's managed that situation well and Cookie's been disciplined in that he's actually followed the advice he's been given, and in the last week, we've seen a lot of progress from him and we're hoping he might be in contention in mid March."