Maintaining the Birmingham City identity is vital as far as Chris Davies is concerned.
The manager wants more of the same we have seen in the last three home matches when Watford come to town on Monday evening.
Successive four-goal salvos against Portsmouth, Millwall and Norwich City have been triggered off the back of fast, intense starts and the particular Blues way of playing.
“We have got a very clear identity,” states Davies.
“Anyone who sees us, you could take all the badges off and numbers off (the shirts) and you’d recognise that’s a Birmingham City team by the way we play the game.
“And that’s a strength of ours. We have this very clear identity and we’re at our best when we’re on the front foot, when we’re aggressive, when we are putting pressure on the opposition, (when) we have got intensity about us.
“Sometimes away from home there can be an element of being a little more passive and you tend to take a step back when you should take a step forward.
“That’s the sort of mindset we are looking to address and make sure we have a bit more of that away from home and that will get us the better results.”
The difference between home and away is stark for Blues.
They are among the top five teams in the Championship on their own patch but rated 21st for productivity on the road.
Watford, incidentally, are similar – one place above Blues in the home rankings, two places below in the away rankings.
As Davies mentions, it is something Blues know that needs to be sorted – and can be.
For the here and now it’s Watford and another opportunity to get points in front of the faithful, something Davies says Blues revel in.
“There is a disparity there,” he notes. “We have been exceptional at home, lost only once since I have been here. It’s been a bit of a fortress for us.
“I would much prefer that.
“There are some teams that struggle to play in their home stadium and don’t quite find their rhythm.
“We need to keep that and it’s a big bonus for us, a positive for us.
“And, yes, we need to keep being strong away from home and picking up points. Building our return from away games. No doubt that it. And we can definitely do that.”
Tomoki Iwata is suspended after picking up a fifth booking of the season in the 1-1 draw at West Bromwich Albion.
Bright Osayi-Samuel is the obvious choice to replace him, with Ethan Laird now not expected back until February due to his long-term hamstring injury.
Watford are a team to be wary of, Davies warns, despite their miseries when not at Vicarage Road.
“Watford have got a lot of good players. They always do have.
“The managers tend to change fairly quickly but the team is always good.
“Every season you see them they’ve always got pace and quality wide players, good, strong midfield players.
“They’re a really good team at this level, obviously, and have a manager who has done well there before and maybe got them a little bit of improvement from earlier in the season since he’s gone in.
“It’s going to be a really difficult match and not the case because we won our last game (at home) 4-1, it’ll be the same. We are really going to have to earn this against this level of opposition.”
