WOOLWORTHS expects trading in the weeks before Christmas to be better than last festive season and will not match rival Coles Myer's aggressive discount petrol offer. Woolies chief executive Roger Corbett said he expected a "strong, steady Christmas" with trading levels to continue well into next year. He told shareholders on Friday at his last annual meeting for the retailer that trading was back to "more normal patterns" - sales growth was in upper single-digit figures - since a petrol price spike in September.