We spoke to midfielder Mike Jones this week to get his thoughts on the recent run of form, reaching 450 career appearances, and the trigger in his contract which will keep him at Brunton Park until the summer of 2019.
Speaking first about last weekend's away draw at St James Park, he said: “We finished the game at Exeter well and we probably had plenty of chances in the end to nick it. We were a little bit disappointed but, on the face of it, it was a good point away from home with two games at Brunton Park to come.
“If we can get maximum points out of those next two games we’ll be right in the mixer. It was important at Exeter that we stayed unbeaten because it’s nice to have those runs, but if you have too many draws in them it can become a bit false.
"We need to gain ground so we need wins, An away draw at Exeter is a decent point, but if we start getting draws at home, that’s no good to us."
“Five games ago it looked like a big task, but we’re right in it now," he continued. "We all know how quickly things can change in football. When you win three games in a week, like we did against Chesterfield, Barnet, then Yeovil, you gain nine points and you can move five or six places up the table. The league is so open this year and we’ve put ourselves back in with a good chance.
“We definitely believe we can do it. You’ve only got to look at Accrington, they’re top of the league now and they’re there for a reason, but we beat them well on Boxing Day. When a team is top of the league you don’t want to sound disrespectful, but anyone can beat anyone in this league. It’s all about putting a bit of consistency together and seeing where it takes you."
On his career milestone of 450 appearances, which he reached when he came on at half time at Huish Park last month, he said: “It was nice to get to that milestone. It doesn’t really mean a lot to me because I just want to keep going and accumulate as many as I can.
"Apart from my ankle injuries, and a couple of little muscle injuries, I’ve always been ok throughout my career so I’ll keep doing the same preparation and things like that. I’ll just keep plodding away and ticking the games off whilst looking after my body.
"I want to be out there on the pitch and fit for as long as possible, I feel really fit again this year after probably being the fittest I’d ever felt last season. I’m 30 now, but I’m still feeling really good."
“It would be nice to tick over 500 games quite quickly, then see how far I can go from there," he added. "It would be good to get to 500 with this club next season. I’ve always said I’ve enjoyed my time here so far, and the fans have been brilliant with me.
"Last year was a failure in terms of what I came here to do. I wanted to get back into League One, but hopefully we can put that right this year."
And on the fantastic response on social media to the news that he was staying with the Blues for next season, he said: “It’s nice to have that sort of relationship with the fans. I don't think you're always appreciated at every club you play for, but I do feel like I am here.
"I try and pay them back on a Saturday and I think they can tell I always give 110%. There have been quite a few times this year where things haven’t gone for me, but they’ve stuck with me and all I can do is keep working hard and try to put in an even better performance in the next game.
“I’ll never shy away from a bad performance. I’ll come back into training on the Monday, or go in the gym and make sure I work even harder, I do punish myself when I don’t have a good game.
"It really does affect me and it makes me more determined to put it right with a good performance. It’s what I’ll always try and do, and it’s important that I have that relationship with the fans because they help me do it, so long may it continue."
Looking ahead to the the final stretch of the season, he said: "It's been a bit up and down for us this time but, if we’re being honest, it was always going to be difficult to replicate the start we had last season and go 20 odd games unbeaten.
"The first six months of last season were unbelievable. It doesn’t matter when you do it, we’re coming good at a good time this season. We want to finish strongly and see where it takes us.
“We’re five unbeaten and in good form, so we’ll be going into the two home games coming up full of confidence and looking for six points.”
Click HERE to watch an interview with Mike Jones on iFollow United now.
