Notts County boss Luke Williams has insisted that February will be the month many anticipated January to be as the race for National League promotion hots up.
The Magpies were forced to give up top spot for the first time since the start of December following Wrexham's 3-0 win over Gateshead in midweek, with their fixture with Solihull Moors postponed on Tuesday due to a frozen pitch.
With three postponements already this month, February will see Williams' side play six times throughout the month, including a trip to Chesterfield in another rescheduled fixture.
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Notts will also welcome Southend and Barnet to Meadow Lane, along with long away trips to both Torquay and Yeovil to test their title credentials.
And Williams explained that despite the lack of games during January, the month has just been as challenging both physically, and mentally.
"We spoke at the beginning of the month to the players and towards the end of December to get our mindset in the right place and explain to them what this month was going to be about because of the number of games that we have," he said.
"I explained that we would have to recover extremely well in between games and we have to be ready because there is no time to lose focus.
"In actual fact, it has just been as challenging but for different reasons.
"We have had to get up, the disappointment, then getting up again and analysing the opposition and present to the players, then it is postponed again.
"So it has been challenging for a different reason, and I think February is looking like the month we thought January was going to look like and hopefully we don't have another cold snap so it looks like we could play two games a week almost every week.
"I don't think there are going to be too many teams in a different position because we were one of the teams who had played the most games and other teams have to play more games than us."
The latest of Notts' postponements saw their trip to the ARMCO Stadium rearranged to next Tuesday which could potentially see them open up a three-point gap back at the top of the National League should they beat Halifax this weekend, with Wrexham in FA Cup action this weekend against Sheffield United.
In a statement released by the club, it was confirmed that the opportunity of playing the game against Neal Ardley's side on Wednesday was offered to their opponents, but was declined which Williams was able to provide more information on.
"We took a view early that we had a good idea of the temperatures and that while the game may have been able to be played on Tuesday, we were very confident that it would almost definitely be played on Wednesday," he said.
"So we tried to rearrange but then we don't know the situation with Solihull in terms of their preparation and the plans that they have made.
"We felt like it was a good option, but it was rejected so now we play next week and both teams have agreed to that."
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