Championship / Gavin Mahon / 27 December 2008 /

QPR's midfield man Gavin Mahon on a small plate for Christmas dinner, turning way draws into wins and why Wolves should take all three points way to Blackpool.

It's great, this time of year. One minute you're in the family home with kids running riot with their new toys, the next you're on the training ground preparing for the next match.

The dates have been a lot kinder to us this year than previous Christmas periods. You could normally expect one extra game in between this weekend coming and next Saturday's FA Cup third round but perhaps they thought New Year's Day on a Thursday would be too near the weekend matches.

Footballers are creatures of habit a bit so to break the normal preparation routines for a match just because it's Christmas wouldn't do anyone any good, really.

I did at least break with my normal diet, just for one meal: Christmas dinner with the family. We had about 10 people round and it was a really nice, family one. My plate wasn't piled as high as some around our table. Just as well for me, because I've got a real weakness for pigs-in-blankets. I love the taste of sausage-in-bacon but a footballer's diet means only a few of them made it onto my plate!

In the evening, while there were big sandwiches being cut, I was having my fruit and yogurt as I normally do. My mum came down and she specialises in chocolate cake and cheesecake but I managed to swerve them...just about.

Our gaffer told us before the Christmas schedule started that he'd be mixing it up, with quite a few games in a short space of time. You have to accept that decision because your natural feeling, as a player, is that you want to play every single game. That might be best for you but it's not necessarily best for the club so it's the manager's job to continually make those assessments.

As I've said before, Paulo's no stranger to this environment. He's done his research, watched loads of games and has friends who've played here, so he was in no doubt about what was good for us.

True enough, there was six changes from our home game on the 20th to the match at Charlton on Boxing Day.

I'd been ill all week so was surprised to even be on the bench. But watching on, we led in the game twice and should really have won it. We even had a goal disallowed right at the end.

It's another point away from home for us - but I feel we've got to start turning some of those one points into three to make sure we stay in touch with the top four or five. We all know that and we're working hard on being better away from our own place.

I read that Steve Coppell hates Christmas and can't wait for it to be over so they can get back to more normal training again. I know where he's coming from but it's difficult to deny your family what they deserve for putting up with you being away so much the rest of the season.

We've got my old club Watford on Sunday, where our on-loan striker Heidar Helguson used to play as well. It's just another game at QPR, though, and that's very much how I'll be treating it.

We had a very poor result at Watford a few weeks back, a 3-0 defeat, it was probably as bad as we've been all season so that needs putting right.

Blackpool v Wolverhampton Wanderers,

Sky Sports 1, Mon Dec 29, 7.45pm

Every week Betting.betfair.com's regular Premiership previewer Richard Walker chats to Gavin about the biggest of the weekend's televised matches in The Championship and recommends a couple of bets based on Gavin's insight into the match.

Gavin says:

The top three seem to have opened a little bit of a gap now and perhaps their extra depth of squad is starting to come through.

I know a couple of the lads up at Blackpool and they tell me Simon Grayson - who's just gone to Leeds - was doing a great job there because it's still run very much as a lower-divisions operation; things like washing your own training kit, stuff like that. It just shows you they're not prepared to bust the club to stay up.

I hope him leaving doesn't have too much of a negative effect on their season. And I know I really should say they'll win because all teams that lose a manager seem to win their first game afterwards.

But I can see Wolves grinding another important result out with their big players coming to the fore when they need them. Michael Kightly's been at the heart of a lot of what they've done well lately.

We played Blackpool six weeks ago and dominated them from start to finish but only ended up with a draw. They're really dogged and they're at home so it'll be close.

Richard suggests:

Back Wolves to secure another three promotion-chasing points at Bloomfield Road. They're better than evens at [2.08].

A narrow away win should be backed; split your stake between 1-0 [8.0] and 2-1 [9.0].

Back Michael Kightly to be First Goalscorer when that market develops.

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