Defender offers his thoughts ahead of Wanderers' Boxing Day clash with Barnsley at Oakwell
Despite the festive season being well and truly underway, Kevin McNaughton revealed that he and his teammates won’t be allowing the Christmas spirit to get in the way of picking up results, starting with Barnsley on Boxing Day.
A seasoned professional having been involved in the game for the best part of 14 years, the full-back admitted that although he will be enjoying the big day with his family, he will be keeping his mind fully focused on the task in hand.
“I’m used to how busy it can be over Christmas – I’m 31 now, so I’ve done my fair share of playing football over the Christmas period,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of kids now so they always get excited around this time, but you’ve just got to have your working head on.
“We get our break in the summer and that’s the time that we get to enjoy ourselves, so it’s just a case of not going downhill over Christmas because there’s a lot of games which can be important at the end of the season.”
Heading into Thursday’s clash with Barnsley on the back of a 1-1 draw with Charlton last weekend, the Scot is under no illusions as to the challenge which lies ahead of Wanderers come kick off at Oakwell.
“It’s just like any other game really,” he explained. “In this league, you can’t go into any game thinking that you’re going to win it and it’s going to be easy.
“You go into a game wanting to win and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll do our work during the week and we’ll set up how to counter the way that Barnsley play to try and get three points.”