GARETH Ainsworth said he’d rather Wanderers had played their two cancelled festive fixtures – adding the enforced break won’t necessarily be an advantage going into tomorrow’s home game against AFC Wimbledon.

While the Dons face the prospect of a fourth game in ten days tomorrow, Wanderers’ players are relatively fresh after suffering late postponements twice in quick succession.

But Ainsworth said that may not play into his side’s hands after having their schedule affected at such short notice.

The Blues boss said: “We could have done without it. We’d have preferred to have played the games. The games in hand are all very well but I’d rather have the points on the board, and Saturday can’t come soon enough now.

“It [the break] doesn’t always work in our favour. We’ve been up and down mentally quite a lot. You prepare your body right and load up with food the night before a game, and it’s important to burn those calories off. I’ll have to double check we are ready to take on Wimbledon.

“Their training loads will be much lighter than ours and they’ll be in the groove of playing.

“We had planned a couple of days off but the boys came in and I’m glad we did because we needed to train those days. It’s not been a normal week - this Christmas period has been mental.”

The enforced lay-off has enabled some of Ainsworth’s injured players more time to recover and the Wanderers chief said he is hopeful defender Kortney Hause – who would have missed the Fleetwood game with a groin injury – will be able to feature tomorrow against a side who have taken just four points from their last seven matches.

Ainsworth added he is hoping to give the fans something to cheer in the first game of 2014, with Blues winless in seven in league and cup at Adams Park.

He said: “To the fans that made the journey to Exeter, hopefully we can repay you on Saturday by getting some points on the board.”