In this week’s Coke Column, Giles discusses his plans for Christmas.

Hi everyone, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and hope you all have an enjoyable time over the festive period.

The festive period is a bit strange as a footballer. We cannot really let our hair down and enjoy ourselves as much as other people as the matches come thick and fast. We got a good result as Nottingham Forest at the weekend and it would have been a great result had we been able to hang on and win. Hopefully that can be a turning point and we can start to move back up the table. With an away game to Doncaster on Boxing Day and a home game against Millwall on New Year’s Day, me and the rest of the lads certainly wont be indulging on Christmas Day or on New Year’s Eve!

We had our Christmas party on Monday which was good fun, and we did a bit of a pub crawl around Northampton. We were thinking of having a Fancy Dress theme but in the end we didn’t, which was perhaps wise, given some of the costumes that players seem to wear at different football club’s Christmas parties!

I’ll be training on Christmas Day, although my family and I will be having a traditional Christmas Dinner. It will be my first year in Northampton with my daughter Nevaeh, and partner Hannah, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think both Hannah’s and my family are going to pop in on Christmas Day so it will be nice to have everyone around.

As far as New Year’s Resolutions go, mine is to play more football! After my ‘Annus Horriblis’ this year, I’m hoping to stay injury free in 2008. I had a double hernia op in Manchester two weeks ago and felt pretty sore for a few days afterwards but I’m feeling better now and really want to push myself into contention for the New Year’s Day fixture against Millwall.

Hardly a Resolution but I hope both Northampton and England have a successful year. With Jose Mourinho ruling himself out of the running for the England job, I think the FA has picked a winner in Fabio Capello. He certainly has a good pedigree. He’s won titles at every club he’s coached at so why not give him a chance.

Anyway I’ll speak to you all again in 2008 and once again hope you all have a happy and healthy festive period.