Welshman looking forward to taking on top side Bury
Arron Davies believes that the squad are looking forward to the chance to test their mettle against league leaders Bury at St James Park on Saturday.Exeter have picked up two wins since their last fixture at St James Park a fortnight ago, and the level of performance in those games in particular has played no small part in those results.
Bury too are in good form – they have only lost a single League 2 fixture this season, on the opening weekend against Cheltenham, and have picked up maximums in their last three games.
And it is for that reason that Davies is savouring the prospect of overturning the front-runners on home turf.
“After the two wins on the road, everyone is confident,” he explained. “We picked up six points, but the way we played in those two games has been outstanding and Tis has been happy with that. Hopefully we can take that into our home form now.
“It’s a game we’re looking forward to and the lads are looking forward to, and we can’t wait to get going on Saturday.
“We played Bury towards the back end of last season and I thought they were a good side then, and they’ve improved on that and they’re bang in form.
“But so are we, so it’ll be two good footballing teams. It’ll be a good match and a good one for us to have at home with them at the top of the league – these are the sorts of games you look forward to.
“I think they’ll come here and play – they play good football from what I’ve read, so I think they’ll have a go and try and come at us which might suit us a little bit.
“They’re top of the league and we’re at home so we’ve got to go for it, and we’re look forward to playing them and trying to put one over on them.”
Davies is most recognisable as a midfielder, but in recent weeks he has been deployed on the right of a back-five. After a spell on the bench, he has featured for 90 minutes in each of the last two games and helped Exeter to wins against Cambridge and Tranmere.
And he insists that he has been enjoying his new role in the team, and is happy to perform wherever he is positioned if it helps the team wins.
“To be back involved and playing 90 minutes is massive for me,” he continued. “It’s a bit of a new position at right wing-back but I’ve enjoyed the last two games. I’ve played there a few times in previous seasons, and as long as we’re winning and I’m playing well, hopefully I’ll stay in the team.
“As long as I’m playing and playing well, I’m quite adaptable and can play anywhere. But I’m really enjoying that position at the minute and wouldn’t mind staying in and trying to work on that position and trying to nail it down.”
Naturally enough, Davies is disappointed that the team are still towards the lower reaches of the division after a tough start to the campaign in August.
However after a much more productive September, he is hopeful of clocking up a few more victories in the next batch of games.
He continued: “I think it’s fairly obvious that we’d like more points, but the wheels are turning now and we’ve turned that corner. That first win was massive and our last two performances have been spot-on in the way we’ve played.
“Players from both the teams we’ve played in the last two games have said, ‘wow – you can play’, so we’ve got to build on that. We know we’ve got a performance in us so we need to tighten up, be solid, stay compact and play as a team.
“It’s not a great feeling when you lose but sometimes you know what you’ve got to work on, and we’ve been doing that in training.
“We’ve set a standard in the last two games, so we’ve got to aim for that. You’re not going to do it every game, but so long as the workrate is there – which it will be – we won’t be far off.”