Chris Marsh: Christmas is the season to be careful for footballers

While everyone else is indulging on food and drink, you have a job to do and must stay professional.

With the riches of the modern game and the lifestyles it allows, I accept it is a pretty small sacrifice.

When I was a player I used to whinge about it but looking back now, I realise I had no right to complain!

All the same, it can be tough. You can’t afford to let yourself get distracted too much by any off-field excitement. Business has to come first.

During my playing career, more often than not we would train on Christmas Day and that is still the case now.

It’s probably the one day when managers do allow players a bit of lee-way.

At Walsall, they would always ask us what time we wanted to train and we’d always try and make it as early possible, in order to get home and see the family.

You see players now talk about eating smaller portions on Christmas Day. Well, I can tell you that certainly wasn’t the case in my day!

Some managers might even allow their team to have a couple of beers. That doesn’t happen now, the focus on conditioning is such players simply cannot afford to cut any corners.

Sometimes the fixture list does you few favours at this time of year.

Walsall play away at Plymouth on New Year’s Day, which means they’ll be travelling down the day before and spending New Year’s Eve in a hotel.

I’ve always thought the league needs to look at reducing travel for teams – and most importantly their supporters – over the festive period. That said, when it comes to Plymouth, there are hardly a wealth of other clubs around that area.

Back in 1992 we played Torquay away on Boxing Day. I remember we trained at the ground quite late on Christmas Day afternoon, before jumping on the coach and heading down there.

We arrived at the hotel to find, unsurprisingly, we were the only guests. The place was deserted other than the staff. An image from the a traditional Christmas, I doubt you could find.

But the most important thing was we went to Plainmoor the next day and won 1-0. Any thoughts of the lonely hotel were quickly forgotten.

It’s all about the results and particularly so when the festive period is even busier than most years.

Walsall will play four games in ten days, starting with Saturday’s trip to Rochdale.

By the time they return from Devon late on New Year’s Day, we should have a better idea of where this season is heading.

Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Northampton was frustrating, particularly after the Saddlers had taken the lead inside the opening two minutes.

That should have been the platform to go on and record a fourth straight win but they were unable to take advantage.

On the whole however, Jon Whitney has to be pretty pleased with how things have gone of late. I think it is fair to say everyone would have taken a haul of nine points from the last four games beforehand.

The challenge now is to see whether the Saddlers can repeat that run over Christmas.

As things stand they are about as middle of the pack as you can get, seven points off the top six and seven clear of the drop zone.

If they can take another nine points from these next four games, they will likely put themselves in a decent position to challenge during the second half of the season.

On the flip side, of course, a bad run could quickly have them looking over their shoulders again.

Pushing toward the top of the table always has to be the aim. It’s tough, everyone accepts that. But you have to keep striving and never fall into the trap of settling for mid-table.

Here’s hoping the Saddlers can make this a very Merry Christmas indeed.