Davis urges team-mates to help Adkins

Southampton midfielder Steven Davis has called on his team-mates to start picking up points to ease the pressure on manager Nigel Adkins.

The club currently sit bottom of the Premier League table after collecting just four points from 10 games, most recently losing 2-0 to West Brom on Monday night.

And the 27-year-old believes he and the rest of the squad should take full responsibility for their current standing and Adkins should not be blamed for their recent results.

“The manager tries to take the pressure away from us as much as possible and lets us try and concentrate on the football,” Davis said.

“We are all in the same position, results haven’t been going our way and we are all under pressure.

“We’re all pulling in the same direction to try and put it right. We are all disappointed to be bottom and with the results we’ve had so far.

“There’s still plenty of games left – but we need to get points on the board as soon as possible.

“Everyone wants the same thing, to start winning games, and start moving up the table and we are all determined to do that.”

The Northern Ireland international is fully aware that the club are embroiled in a relegation fight, but is confident the newly promoted side can move away from danger with the right attitude.

And Davis has pinpointed the visit of Swansea City on Saturday as a perfect starting point to build some momentum.

“It is important we tighten up at the back and take a few more chances and then hopefully it will come together,” he said.

“All you can do is get your head down, keep working hard and try and put things right what are going wrong on the training pitch.

“We’ve got a home game with Swansea this weekend and that is another good opportunity to get us going and get some points on the board.

“We are still confident we can get out of this position, without a doubt. It is still early in the season but we know where we are at this point in time. We are in a fight.”