Crawley Town boss likes traditional games over festive period - but there is one fixture he doesn't understand

The Reds have four matches between Boxing Day and January 4, beginning with the visit of Colchester United to the Broadfield Stadium this Friday.

There is only three days between that encounter and another home contest against Bromley before two away trips to Barnet (January 1) and Cheltenham Town (January 4) respectively.

Lindsey said: “I think going into this first game, which is probably the most important one because it's the next one, we have to pick a team accordingly to attack them and to go for them and then after that we have to look at numbers and injuries and bits and pieces.

“In my mind, I've got who I think should play in the Bromley game already but, like I say, that might change depending on how we get on Boxing Day.”

Lindsey gave an insight into the toll the number of fixtures takes and how it almost simplifies the selection-making process.

He said: “I mean, all you're doing really is recovering from one game and prepping for the next and that's all you're doing. There's no training sessions as it were - you're literally counting the numbers, counting the heads, how many are fit and who can we use in the next one. It's quite brutal really.

“I think that we should always play a game of football on Boxing Day. We should always play a game of football on New Year's Day because I think that's tradition. I just don't understand the games in between and I think there's probably not loads of thought gone into them games.

“I think it's taxing on the players. Physically, I think it's really difficult to keep performing at a level, which is why you need a deep squad, which we've got. We probably will need to swap it around at times during these Christmas games.”

The Reds were given an extra week off after their January 10 game against Cambridge United was postponed due to Cambridge’s FA Cup commitments. That match will now be played the following month on February 10 at a later kick-off time of 19:45.

That has been the only disruption in Lindsey’s lengthy preparation for the festive period.

“We've done the schedule weeks ago leading into this. The only thing we've had to tinker and change slightly is the back end of it all. Obviously, the Cambridge game has now changed now.

“So, that's the only thing we've had to change slightly is that week, but everything else has remained the same. We've kind of organised the Christmas lump of games quite early on in the schedule so we know what we're doing.”