Exeter City manager Matt Taylor wants his players to get ‘back to themselves’ on Saturday when they face Salford City at St James Park.
The game – which is being used to mark the 20th anniversary since the Exeter City Supporters’ Trust came into being – is a decisive one with Salford battling for a spot in the League Two play-offs and City hoping to break back into the automatic promotion places with nine games to go.
The Grecians are without a win in four and suffered a poor first half showing against Walsall last time out. However, Matt is confident, back at SJP, the players will rediscover their identity.
“I keep reiterating it in almost every interview how important it is to enjoy these moments,” said Matt. “Pressure is pressure, we are under no illusions that we are under pressure because we want to keep picking up points and we have not done that in our last four games. So, we want to get back to ourselves.”
Salford, who strengthened their squad in January, also come into the match on good form having won their last two games.
“I think they are always improving,” said Matt. “If you sign good players, you are going to be a better team off the back of it. They have certainly done that. They have got nothing to lose in terms of what they are trying to get to this season, but it is certainly a game where we want to get back to ourselves and give ourselves a real identity. In the second half we did that last weekend but unfortunately we didn’t quite do that enough in the first half.”
Speaking about the celebrations for the 20 years of Exeter City Supporters’ Trust, Matt added: “Twenty years is a long period of time and you think of where it all started when the club was in such big trouble really and now we seem to be in a stable condition.
"We want to keep on progressing. The support in terms of my time as manager from the Trust has been absolutely huge and we felt it when I was a player as well. The club is still moving in the right direction. We are never perfect, but we are always trying to do things right and the Trust is being led by good people as well.”