Flynn let the players prepare for today’s visit to Swindon by leaving them to their own devices at their respective homes.

The Saddlers were travelling down for the game today, with an overnight hotel stay not deemed necessary for such a short journey.

Flynn said: “I have only trained once on Christmas Day in my whole career and we lost the next day so I am not sure there is too much benefit to it.

“I trust the players explicitly, so I know there wouldn’t be too much turkey or Christmas pudding and there definitely wouldn’t be too much wine consumed – that will apply to me as well.”