Forward looks on to York fixture
Exeter City forward Alex Nicholls feels that the Grecians’ next two fixtures – away trips to York City and Carlisle United – could be pivotal to their final standing in the table in May.
City face a 600-mile round-trip to Bootham Crescent on Saturday, before making the longest trip of the campaign seven days later with a journey to Brunton Park.
Both the Minstermen and the Cumbrians are in particularly lowly positions in the league table – occupying the two places directly above the relegation zone at present.
So Alex is keen that the Grecians can secure some much-needed points in each of the next two games so that they can return to the Park for their next home fixture against AFC Wimbledon in mid-March in a healthier position than present.
“The next two games are the defining moment of our season – whether we’re going to finish mid-table or whether we are going to go on and try to get into the play-offs,” said Alex.
“So the next two games are vital to which way our season goes. The Plymouth game is gone now – there is nothing we can do about that and we have just got to move on to the next game.
“In the situation we’re in now, we’ve got nothing to lose. We may as well try to go for games and get ourselves as high up the table as we can.
“You’re always confident when you go up against teams that are struggling, and our away form has been decent this season. So we’ll go into these two games looking for three points in both of them.
“If we go and play well in the next couple of games, I’m sure the lads will be full of confidence at the next home game.
“That would give everyone a lift – you can get into a little bit of a rut and obviously with the way our home form is going at St James Park, it might seem a little bit difficult to play there at the moment for the lads.
“But we’re professional footballers and we need to embrace that pressure. We can make it a lot easier by having two positive results in these two away games.”