Davis: I Think It'll Be a Tasty Game Friday, 31st Jan 2025 17:57 by Kallum Brisset Town defender Leif Davis knows the importance of Saturday’s home clash with Southampton at Portman Road, but says he is not labelling it as a must-win game. The Saints are bottom of the Premier League table and arrive in Suffolk with just six points from their 23 league matches so far this season. The Blues are also inside the relegation zone but hold a 10-point advantage over their Hampshire opponents, who have lost their last six matches in the Premier League. Despite the visitors’ struggles, Davis acknowledged the difficulty of the task at hand and believes the nature of the reverse fixture in September, when Sam Morsy struck a stoppage-time equaliser, will add an extra spice to the clash between two of the newly-promoted sides. “It’s just another big game, every game’s a massive game in this league,” he said. “We’ve had a few good games against them in the past few years. Hopefully we can do our thing and come out on the right side of the result. “Every game is a tough game. It’s going to be physically high with the way they play that’s man-for-man. We can hurt them in areas of the pitch when they come man-for-man, but they can hurt us as well because they’ve got very good players and that’s why they’re in the league. We’ve just got to stay focused at all times and do everything we can to stop them. “It will be a tasty game, I think. They’ll be thinking it’s a rival game as well with the results we’ve had against them and the challenges we had against them last year. “It’s a new season and a different year, Skip’s goal against them at the start of the season would have hurt them so they’ll try and come for it a bit more on the weekend. “We’ve just got to go and play our game and do our game plan, it’s going to be a different game to what we faced at the start of the year with a new manager [Ivan Jurić]. We’ve just got to prepare right for that and adapt to what they’re going to do on Saturday.” Town have been known to take each game as it comes and not get too carried away or look ahead to certain fixtures on the calendar, which has served them great success in achieving promotion in each of the last two seasons. Davis says there has not been any talk inside the dressing room about Saturday’s game being a proverbial six-pointer. He said: “You want to win every game but in this league you can’t do that. It’s going to be a tough game because the way they played the first time we played them is a lot different to the way they’re going to play them this time with the change of formation and different players to what we faced. It would be nice to get the three points but you can never guarantee it. “We’ve got a strong group of lads here. We never look at the table or anything, we haven’t in the past two years even when we were at the top of the league, we always focused on game-by-game. “It’s going to be another tough game, we can’t look at anything else outside of what we’re doing and keep doing what we’re doing and trying to get them wins.” The top flight’s two bottom sides will do battle with the Blues knowing a victory could take them out of the relegation zone with themselves, Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers all locked within a single point of each other. Asked if the Blues will stay up this season, Davis said: “It’s way too early to be saying that. We’re going to give it everything we can until the end of the season in every game. It’s 19th versus 20th but it’s just another game that we need to keep focused on and do everything we can to come out on the right side of the result.” He added: “The fans have been with it all year and they’ve been incredible for the past three years I’ve been here. A lot of times we need them, they’re the 12th man home and away. The support they have shown us is incredible and it’s unbelievable playing at home as well.” No meeting with Southampton, particularly at home, could pass without referencing the blockbuster clash between the two sides in April last year when the Blues were en-route to sealing promotion. Town trailed 2-1 in the second half only to spark some of the greatest scenes ever witnessed at Portman Road when Jeremy Sarmiento scored a 97th-minute winner to earn Kieran McKenna’s side an invaluable 3-2 victory in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Easter Monday. Reflecting on that special evening, Davis said: “That’s the best game I’ve ever played in and ever been involved in. The atmosphere, how the game went, the late equaliser, the spirit the lads showed to come from a goal behind twice. “Then for Jeremy to come on and do that, I didn’t even know what to do I was that tired at the end of the game when Jeremy scored. I think I just looked at Tayls [Jack Taylor] on his hands and knees and I couldn’t even run over and celebrate. “We’ve had good games against them, we just need to go out there and do what we do. “The spirit of the lads and the togetherness of the team, we knew that we could get it over the line. That game pushed it over the line for us as well. There was still a lot to go in the season but we got it done.” While Sarmiento’s magic will be remembered for many years, it could be easy to forget that it was Davis who opened the scoring that day, slamming a left-footed strike beyond Gavin Bazunu at the near post. “I know Samy [Morsy]’s quality and he likes to do that pass,” Davis said. “I’ve seen Omari [Hutchinson] block the right-back so I knew I had a lot of time and space on the ball and I thought I’m just going to get my head down and hit it. “When I looked up it was already in the back of the net and I didn’t know how to celebrate. It was one of my best goals I’ve scored, hopefully I can get another one on Saturday.” This weekend’s visit will be refereed by Michael Oliver, who became the target of significant online abuse last weekend in the wake of the decision to send off Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly in their victory against Wolves at Molineux. On the difficulties facing match officials, Davis said: “We’ve got to respect everyone on the pitch. At times you do get a bit annoyed on the pitch and you might say some things you don’t mean and stuff like that. “It’s football, you’re competitive and you’ve got to try and be the best you can and you want to win games. I don’t pay attention to it that much, I just play my game and keep my head down.” Midfielder Kalvin Phillips is currently on loan at Town from Premier League champions Manchester City and has a strong friendship with Davis since their time together at Leeds United. Davis is delighted to have Phillips with the Blues for the season and believes the 31-cap England international needs a confidence boost to see him back to his best. He said: “I’ve been with Kalvin since we were at Leeds and I have a good friendship with him, he’s like a brother to me. That first day I went to Leeds he took me under his wing straight away. We spent a lot of time off the field together as well and when he came back I was buzzing. “He’s done well in the games he’s played as well, he’s done everything he can to be playing. I just want to see him get his confidence fully back to how I know he can play and I think he’s getting there. “The way he plays when he’s confident is probably one of the best midfielders in the league. He’s an incredible player and I’m glad we’ve got him here.” In terms of January transfer business, Town have welcomed Ben Godfrey, Jaden Philogene and Julio Enciso to the club while Harry Clarke, Ali Al-Hamadi (both loan) and George Edmundson (permanent) have departed Portman Road this month. Davis is excited to see more of attackers Philogene and Enciso while admitting it is a disappointing feeling to see players move on that have contributed so much. “We’ve seen Julio a few times this week and he’s so sharp,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing him play and looking forward to playing with him. “Jaden as well, I’ve played against Jaden a few times especially when he was at Hull and he came on against us for Villa. He’s a very good player and a very good athlete as well, he will run hard for the team and do everything he can to fight and play for. “It’s difficult as you lose players that have been with you for a while like Clarkey. I hope he has all the success in the world, he’s a lovely lad and a good player. “You have to improve everywhere on the pitch and I think we’ve done that in this window bringing players in where we needed to strengthen, hopefully they do add to the squad.” Finally, Davis also has his own international ambitions with regards to England. New boss Thomas Tuchel is set to name his first Three Lions squad in March with the 25-year-old hoping to be in contention. “It would be a dream come true, obviously,” he said. “At this moment I’m just focused on trying to play my game and improving every week. If it does come then I’ll be delighted but if it doesn’t then I’ll keep pushing to get into that position.”
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