Hassell: Christmas on the backburner

Traditionally the festive fixture schedule is always the busiest time of year for any professional footballer and Hassell, now fully recovered from an Achilles injury, accepts his duties lie with Barnsley over the Christmas period. Hassell said: "It's never great over Christmas, but we're in good form at the minute. We've gone six games undefeated, so we need to try and keep that going." Mark Robins' side have climbed steadily up to 16th place and remain unbeaten in their last six matches.