also from the leicester Mercury:
Luke Varney is expecting Gary Megson to revive Leicester City's promotion bid - but has warned it might have to wait until after tomorrow.
Varney is set to start for Charlton Athletic against his home-town club in the Championship at the Valley Stadium after impressing Addicks manager Alan Pardew on his breakthrough after injury.
Varney says his family keep him in touch with what is happening back at Leicester, the club he has supported since he was a boy.
"Its a bit crazy what's been happening there lately," Varney said. "I just hope they can settle on Gary Megson and let him get on with doing the job."
Varney joined Charlton in a £2million summer move from Crewe which earned his first club, Quorn, a £500,000 windfall.
The striker, who is 25 next week, made his first appearance from the bench at Colchester last weekend, and helped Charlton recover from two goals down, setting up the equaliser for Zheng Zhi.
Varney had made a spectacular return to action with a hat-trick for the reserves against Southampton.
Varney said: "I know from my time at Crewe that Colchester is a difficult place to go to, and you have to show a bit of bottle which we did."
His immediate impact as a substitute at Layer Road earned him a start in the midweek 2-0 win over Norwich. He said: The manager (Alan Pardew) asked me on the day before the Norwich match if I was ready, and I said I was raring to go.
"I always enjoy night games and it went well - I did everything but score. Their keeper made a really good save from me in the second half. I think I impressed the manager and, hopefully, the fans."
Varney did pick up a caution - as well as a few bumps and bruises - and said. "I was causing them problems in the first half so I got kicked about a bit in the second half, but I'm okay and looking forward to the Leicester game.
"We should have the quality to beat Leicester if we get at them early, and it's a good arena for us.
"We're now up to third in the Championship and it's looking good. The first couple of games (Charlton drew with Scunthorpe and lost to Stoke) were a wake-up call, perhaps, for some of the lads dropping down.
"But I know the Championship is all about work-rate and, if we have that, we've certainly got the technical ability to go all the way back into the Premiership."
Varney is delighted to be in the front-line after a build-up campaign disrupted by injury.
It was just two weeks into the pre-season campaign when Varney suffered ankle-ligament damage during a behind-closed-doors friendly against Chelsea.
"I got an early goal against them, but it was all over for me after 40 minutes," he said. "It was disappointing because as the new signing I was looking to impress.
"I was out for six weeks, but received top-class treatment and the physios here have been great.
"Now I'm in there, but there's four good strikers competing for places here, but that's what you want. It keeps you really focused."
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