Shrewsbury handed festive boost

Following today’s home game with Peterborough, Town travel to face Cheltenham on Boxing Day.

Normal protocol for clubs across the country that are playing on Boxing Day, will see teams train on Christmas Day.

But Taylor has decided to give his players the day with their families, while also staying professional in their preparation.

He said: “It’s because the game is not a million miles away, the players won’t be in on Christmas Day, but they have a session to do at home. That needs to be submitted by midday.

“For the majority of my career I’ve always spent Christmas Day in training but that was also because for the majority of my career I played in the Premier League or Championship, you have the facilities to be able to recover, train under floodlights at your training ground, there’s a lot you think about in my position as manager now.

“It’s about weighing up the pros and cons, some of our players have family not in this part of the country. I’m a firm believer that family comes before everything – that’s not to suggest we’re not approaching the festive period with the most professionalism, we are.

“It’s just I feel to get the most out of the players, to give them a day at home with their families, that means so much to them. I just think it’s the correct decision.

“The other reason is, I’ll mention it again, we’ve still got a ridiculous amount of injuries, we’ve got to be really careful with the players we’ve got fit. We can’t afford any more injuries, that’s me being open and up front.

“For where we are, I think it’s the right decision to allow the players to have the Christmas morning at home with the children, wives, partners, parents, but mark my words they have a session to do on the morning so they are not getting the full Christmas Day off!

“It’ll be very prescriptive about what they need physically before a game, because I’ve never approached or played a professional football match where you have a day off before a game, so they won’t be getting one, they will have specific session to do.”

Town then travel to play Burton on December 29, before a New Year’s Day game with Fleetwood.