KENNY Davis knows how important it is for Braintree Town to have a good start to their Vanarama National League campaign this year.

With new manager Danny Cowley coming in and a number of changes being made to the Iron’s squad this summer, there will be a fresh feeling when they kick-off the season at Chester on August 8.

But while it is Braintree’s fifth consecutive season in the top flight of English non-league football, Davis has drawn parallels with how it was in their first year and he wants the new-look team to replicate the early success they had then.

He said: “I think it’s still getting to 50 points that has to be our main focus, but we do need to make sure we make a strong start.

“We’re a new team and a good early spell will give us confidence.

“That’s just like when we first came up (into the Conference Premier).

“We lost the first game, but then went on a good run which gave us great confidence.

“It’s a busy start, but that’s no different to other years and it’s been proved before that a busy run suits us.

“We always seem to do well in a period when we have a lot of games.

“Hopefully we’ll take it in our stride, do well and it will breed confidence.” Braintree conclude their pre-season fixtures with a trip to Vanarama National League South side Ebbsfleet United on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

Ebbsfleet knocked Braintree out of the FA Trophy last season and the Iron will be looking to head into the start of the season in a positive manner.

Davis has already been on the scoresheet a couple of times during their summer fixtures and after scoring eight from his 41 appearances last season, the 27-year-old said that he is looking to pose a bigger goal threat from midfield this year.

“Personally, I think I can get more goals in open play,” he added.

“I know I got five or six penalties last year, but I want to be a bigger goal threat this year.

“I think I can do that, but we’ve got more goals throughout the team now – as you can see from our pre-season.

“Across all our friendlies, all of our strikers have got goals and that can only be a positive.”