Barnsley: No traditional German Christmas this year for Stendel and Winkler

Usually at this time of year, Barnsley assistant head coach Andreas Winkler can be found wandering around a German Christmas market, with a glass of Glühwein in one hand and a Bratwurst in the other.
Andreas WinklerAndreas Winkler
Andreas Winkler

But this will be no traditional festive period for Winkler and his manager Daniel Stendel as they experience British way of life for the first time.

Winkler, who played and coached in Germany all of his career until his surprise move to South Yorkshire in the summer, is used to having a winter break as the league shut down for four weeks over the Christmas and New Year period.

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But in England, Christmas means football and the Christmas markets will be a distant memory as he swaps them for the blood and thunder of five games in 14 days.

It will be a new experience for the 46-year-old, but one he is fully embracing, with his family coming over to watch back-to-back home games with Peterborough on Boxing Day and Charlton on December 29.

'I am very excited to see this for the first time in my life,' Winkler admitted. 'The atmosphere of the people here in England. My family will come over for one week and can watch two home matches, so I am very excited for this period.

'In Germany, we have four weeks off. The players maybe have 10 days completely off and then start training. It is totally different.

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'We don't watch football in this period, we go to Christmas markets. In Germany, it is a family time. Here you spend with your football family, so it is a little bit different.'

One man who is enjoying his football at the moment, regardless of the time of year is Cauley Woodrow.

The former Fulham striker bagged his sixth goal in just 10 appearances with the leveller against Portsmouth on Saturday, continuing his impressive introduction to life at Oakwell following a frustrating injury.

He said: 'I'm loving it here, it's good to be playing regularly and I've settled in well after an injured start.

'I've found my feet and got amongst the goals, I hope the fans have taken to me, I've really liked playing here and I am enjoying it.'