YORK City manager Gary Mills has decided against bringing his team in for training on Christmas Day.

The Minstermen entertain Gateshead a week tomorrow but Mills is expecting the players to prepare properly for that match without dragging them to the club’s Wigginton Road complex the day before.

He also trusts every member of his squad not to over-indulge in seven days’ time.

Mills told The Diary: “I generally don’t like to train on Christmas Day because the players train enough to be honest. You could bring people in for the sake of it but it’s an important period of the year.

“I’m a family man and I like to be with my family on Christmas morning. You just have to rely on the players not to have that little bit of extra turkey or a few too many sprouts because they will feel it the next day then.

“I don’t mind them having a glass of wine with their lunch because you have got to treat the players like adults but, as a professional footballer, you have to drink and eat the right stuff. I also think I have players who will go for a brisk walk or jog on their own in the afternoon and have some quiet time alone to switch their thoughts to the next day.

“I used to love Boxing Day games. The atmosphere always seemed special and I always wanted to be the best player on the pitch so I didn’t drink the wrong stuff on Christmas Day because I knew it would hinder my performance.

“There will still be the opportunity for the players to enjoy a drink at the right time over Christmas and I trust them so there will be no problems.”

The right time, in fact, will be this evening when the players throw their Christmas party and Mills has given his full permission for them to celebrate the festive season.

He added: “The players will have a drink over the weekend because we’ve got a long week now without a game until Sunday so it’s the right time to have a night out. They are adults and they need to live.

“If I made them train every day and go to bed at 10pm, I would not get a response from them.

“They need to enjoy themselves, relax and let their hair down like everybody else sometimes. If they do it two days before a game, though, then there’s a problem.”

FORMER City defender John MacPhail, meanwhile, has also got in the festive spirit this week.

MacPhail has done his bit to help save crisis club Dundee, who gave him his first break in the game, by selling off his collection of signed celebrity photographs.

Autographed pictures of the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Geoff Hurst, Alan Shearer, Cheryl Cole and Katie Price went for £2,000 at a fundraising auction with the Dens Park club owing the taxman £400,000 and having until March to pay up or face closure.

About his gesture, MacPhail said: “I bought the prints thinking that they would bring some money into the family one day but the plight at Dundee has forced me to hand them over to try and help save the club.”