Jenny Taylor should have known better than to ask her husband what he was jotting down.

It was the Saturday night after City’s trip to Crewe had been frozen off but there was no chance of the manager switching off for the evening. So he was scribbling away.

“I’m a continuous writer,” admitted Taylor, “but my wife wanted to know what I was writing about.

“I was actually working out the sizes and the pace of the centre halves we’re going to play over Christmas. I was thinking what I’m going to do against them!

“You’re always thinking about little things like that.

“I look at the players here and we’ve got five or six forwards on our books at the minute.

“I’ve no doubt they are going to be chopping and changing over the Christmas period. I think we’ll be playing some fresh legs in certain games.

“But of course it also depends on us playing those games. If all of a sudden one or two get called off, that may not then be the case.”

Such is the conundrum of management that Taylor has been wrestling with since he took his first hot-seat job 24 years ago at non-league Dartford. And you sense that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Twelve months ago there was no notebook on the arm of the chair. Having been sacked by Wycombe soon after taking them up to League One, the serial manager found himself temporarily kicking his heels.

He said: “Last Christmas I had a very nice one, to be honest. I was without a job at that time and I think my family and my two daughters quite enjoyed it.

“But my life at the minute is managing a football club. I’ve done it for a few years now and hopefully I’ve still got a few more to go.

“It’s always about planning the next day and I’ve never changed from that. That’s just how it is.”

For someone with such meticulous methods of preparation, the forthcoming hectic run of games presents its own headache.

The wintry weather could well make all of Taylor’s homework redundant – the Boxing Day clash with Chesterfield has already gone – but he cannot afford to take any chances.

“It’s making it probably more confusing now because you’re looking at the weather and you’re not sure what’s going to be on,” he said.

“If we knew we were going to play four matches in nine days and they were definitely going to take place, it’s very easy then to plan it. But everything’s a little bit more difficult now.

“That’s the game we’re in. We’ve got strengths in certain players which would be better against certain types.

“Players know they are going to get an opportunity and it’s up to them to grab it.”

Even though Sunday’s showdown with the leaders fell to the big freeze, Taylor still believes that his team can match the best.

“I know we haven’t performed the way we know we can,” he said.

“The minute we do that and we’re still not good enough, then I’ll hold my hand up. But I think we’ve got a bit more in our tanks to go and push on.”