Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne believes a positive result against Bolton Wanderers could give the side a real lift going into the rest of the busy festive schedule.
The Rams travel to Bolton, who sit in fifth place, on Tuesday (3pm kick-off) for their first game of the festive period and with just one point and one position separating the two teams, the magnitude of the Sky Bet League One fixture hasn't been lost on Warne.
Speaking to RamsTV prior to Derby's final away day of 2022, Warne spoke about the busy period, his thoughts on the Trotters and gave a positive squad fitness update.
On festive fixture preparations...
It's been different. We've had a bit more time to train and the lads have had a little more time to rest so, from a coach's point of view, it's been quite nice.
On three games in seven days...
The politically correct answer would be that I'm only thinking about the next game but that wouldn't be the truth. I always think about groups of games and like to attack three or four at a time.
I really enjoy games over Christmas because I feel our teams always play with a real energy and try and grab January by the throat.
January can be absolute mayhem and if you can just focus on the players you've got and just tweak things a little bit then you're great - and that's how I see this period. If you can get three, four or even five wins across the festive period and January, you go into February in a really strong position.
On facing teams for the second time this season...
It's a little bit easier in regards to the lads as they know 70% of the players, although there are always changes to the teams and there has been changes to management teams too.
What we always do though is study the last three games of who we are playing against religiously and not worry about what happened in our first game against them this season, whenever that was.
It's more familiar and the match preparation is a little bit shorter but apart from that, virtually everything else is the same.
On using the squad depth over Christmas...
My honest answer is, I'm hoping I don't need everyone - as bad as that sounds. If I'm using all 21 or 22 of the squad then there has probably been some catastrophic performances or injury crisis!
Realistically I'll want to be using around 16 of them but you don't know which 16 yet as you don't know where the problems are, where the injuries are or what the opposition are bringing.
On the squad fitness...
I don't think we've got any injury issues all. James Chester is doing his last little box tick today and is then back training with the full squad on Saturday. He won't be involved against Bolton obviously unless something catastrophic happens.
He needs a couple of weeks of intense training but in that respect the lads have done really well and I thank the backroom staff because they are the ones that send them out every day and prepare them.
On Bolton Wanderers...
They've got a lot of similarities with us. They've had three transfer windows now to build a formidable League One team and you can always see the teams that invest.
They know the league, they know the opposition, they know each other and they've had the same manager for a period of time. They've got a real good following and backing and got some really good players. Like any team in this league, if you play them on their best day then you are in for a difficult game but even more so those in the top six.
It's a big game for both teams and hopefully it will be a good one. Whoever comes outs victorious, if a team does, will give themselves a massive boost going into the remainder of the festive fixtures.
