SWINDON boss Mark Cooper trusts his players to behave in a professional manner ahead of tomorrow's Boxing Day clash with Brentford.

While the majority of Football League clubs will be training today, Cooper has allowed his young squad the day off ahead of the game at Griffin Park.

Cooper is convinced his players will resist the temptation to overindulge on Christmas Day and believes they deserve to spend the day with their families.

"That comes down to professionalism because we’re not going to camp at the County Ground and chain them to the table on Christmas Day, you have to trust them," he said.

"On the whole we have a very good group of players who want to learn, work hard and make a career out of being footballers. We have one or two we have to be careful with, everyone knows that, but we’re not going to punish the group for that.

"We will have to keep them down to five or six roast potatoes and half a turkey each and they should be alright."

When asked what his perfect Christmas gift would be, Cooper reluctantly gave in and used an old cliche: "Let me think, maybe an iPad...no, three points, of course it is."

THE ADVERTISER SPORTS DESK WOULD LIKE TO WISH ALL OUR READERS A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS