ANDY BOOTH will play with a protective cast on his left hand when Town aim to take their biggest step towards promotion at Oxford on Saturday (3.00).

The 30-year-old frontman suffered a broken metacarpal bone in Tuesday's fine 3-1 McAlpine win against Yeovil and, at first, it was thought he might miss the big trip to the Kassam Stadium.

Town's 10-goal leading scorer was seeing a hand specialist today, however, to have a lightweight cover fitted which will allow him to continue alongside Pawel Abbott up front as Peter Jackson's side chase a 10th win in 12 matches to move joint third in the table.

That mouth-watering prospect became achievable last night when Oxford were held to a goalless draw at home by York City and Jackson can't wait to have a crack at ending Oxford's unbeaten home record.

"Boothy has a hairline fracture of a bone in the back of his hand, but we are having a special cast made which will enable him to play," said Jackson, who watched the Reserves win 1-0 at Sheffield Wednesday last night with a John McAliskey goal.

"He got the injury from being struck by the ball and it was causing him some discomfort in the Yeovil game, but Boothy is such a vital player for us both in attack and defence that we need to keep him battling on.

"That's especially so with such a massive game on the horizon against Oxford and the bonus of last night's result, which gives us the chance of joining them in third place if we can come back with the win that we want.

"These are the games that we are in this job for - ones that really get the adrenalin flowing - and we are on a brilliant run at the moment which we want to keep going."

Jackson had Jon Worthington and Dwayne Mattis back in full training today after slight knocks, while Tony Carss is available again after suspension.

Jackson reported to the Town board this morning that he has had initial talks with Preston about the possibility of signing Abbott, but that those talks are ongoing.

"Pav's loan spell runs until the 14th of March and, as I've already said, I would like to bring him to the club," confirmed Jackson.

"If we extend his loan to the end of the season, it would expire on May 18 and that would rule Pav out of the play-off semi-final second leg and the final of the play-offs should we be in them, so that's another reason why we are looking at the option of a permanent deal."

Town's focus, though, is on an automatic promotion place and, as they've got a game in hand on Oxford, Jackson knows just how important this Saturday's match is.

"It is set up superbly and we are all looking forward to the game," said Jackson, who had back-up keeper Paul Rachubka training at Storthes Hall for the first time with Phil Senior and coach Lee Martin.

"I thought we were very unlucky not to beat Oxford at our place, we have lost only one match in 12 since we played them and we are going into battle looking to extend our own fantastic record."

Ian Gray (hand) and Nat Brown (groin) are the only injured men.