THE festive period – a highlight for supporters, often not so much for managers.

However, Warrington Town manager Mark Beesley believes his side’s schedule gives plenty of time for rest and recovery as they look to build on the platform they have built for themselves.

The highly-anticipated double header against Chester looms large, with Town making the short trip to the Deva Stadium on Boxing Day before the reverse fixture at Cantilever Park on New Year’s Day, which is expected to be played in front of a sell-out crowd of around 2,000.

First, though, Yellows must negotiate their final home fixture of 2023 – a tricky one against a Banbury United side who boast the National League North’s best away record having picked up 19 points on their travels.

The Puritans also won the reverse fixture 3-0 in September and as such, Beesley is well aware that eyes cannot afford to wander.

“It’s fallen quite nicely,” he said of his side’s Christmas fixtures.

“We’ve had a free week to get ourselves ready for Saturday, then we go into a Tuesday game and then New Year’s Day is a Monday, so we’ve got time to recover.

“We’ll have two training sessions in between those Chester games, so we feel like it has fallen okay for us.

“For the small squad we’ve got, having those extra couple of days before playing on the Monday will be beneficial.

“Everyone looks forward to this time of year with derby fixtures, but first and foremost we’ve got a really tough game on Saturday.

“They beat us comfortably earlier in the season so we know it will be difficult.

“We want to put that day to bed, learn from it and hopefully put up a different performance.”

Saturday’s 0-0 draw at King’s Lynn Town means Yellows go into the game having picked up back-to-back clean sheets for just the second time this season, with the only previous occasion coming back in August.

In fact, there have been only two occasions on which Beesley’s side have conceded more than once in league football since the reverse fixture at Banbury and in both of those games – the 2-2 draw with South Shields in October and the recent 2-1 loss at Hereford – they were hampered by first-half red cards.

The Town boss has been happy with his side’s defending in general this season and is pleased to see it now being rewarded in shut-outs.

“Clean sheets are something we’ve not really had this season – we’ve defended well in general but have given silly goals away,” he said.

“Getting two back-to-back is important because if you’re keeping a clean sheet, you’re getting at least a point on the board.

“With this league being so tight and tough, keeping clean sheets is something we’ve spoken about a lot and we need to keep this going.”