"It's still work, isn't it!": Warne is looking forward to festive football and food

Preparing for football on Christmas Day is all Paul Warne has ever known, but he is not one to down play the importance of the festive period on and off the pitch.

Keen to spend time with his family over the coming days, the MK Dons head coach said he is a typically festive character, keen to enjoy the festivities as best he can while keeping half an eye on his day job.

Dons will be in action four times between Christmas Day and January 4, kicking off on Boxing Day against Swindon Town at Stadium MK.

And despite being in the game for nearly four decades as a player, coach and manager, Warne still struggles when people are surprised by his back-to-work mindset on December 25.

“It’s still work, isn’t it!” he said. “People seem to forget we’re still at work over Christmas! I’ve known nothing different since I was 15. When I see my friends on Christmas Day and leave at 9pm, I have to remind them I’ve had a game on Boxing Day for 37 years!

“I enjoy this period but I love Christmas. All the sport, love the darts, everything. Christmas pud, mince pies, turkey, Christmas cake. The fact the sport is exciting at this point as well just adds to that. I buzz off Christmas.”

With regards to preparing his team with the short turnarounds between games, the head coach admitted more work is conducted in front of the tactics board than on the pitch as players are taught more than trained in the days in between.

He continued: “I enjoy the Christmas period because I usually have a fit, strong squad which suits me. I liked it as a player, liked it as a coach and I quite like it as a manager. Like the fact that if you can come through it with a good haul of points, the league can look considerably different.

“On the other side, if you don’t perform, you have a game a few days later to right the wrongs. It’s mostly about recovery and what we do in the classroom rather than what we do on the training ground.”