CURTIS Davies has insisted Blues should aim high this season – which means promotion. Backing up manager Chris Hughton’s revelation to the Birmingham Mail this week that the club were targeting such success, Davies asked what was the point in settling for mid-table mediocrity?

Blues take on Peterborough United at St Andrew’s tomorrow, where they have yet to lose and conceded just one goal in the league.

They are well placed four points from the Championship play-off zone with three games in hand.

And to Davies that represented another opportunity to achieve and move upwards in the table, rather than accept the events since Premier League relegation and an overhaul in playing staff should result in a lowering of sights.

“I look around the squad and I believe we need to get promoted,” said the centre-half. “You have to set your standards. You can’t sit on the fence and say ‘oh yeah, mid-table would be good for the club, consolidate’.

“No. I don’t believe that, because we have got good enough players to play in the Premier League.

“I believe we should be there or thereabouts for getting promoted. An absolute minimum, in my opinion, by my standards, is play-offs.

“I am not trying to put pressure on anyone else, but that’s what I want. I like to set my standards as getting into the Premier League.”

Davies said he took no notice of the doom-laden predictions before a ball was kicked.

The financial agony and loss of so many players was something to deal with, not panic over.

“I think the main reason people were writing us off was because of the amount of games we had,” he said.