SIMON Davies says the Blues can turn their dismal run around by delivering a performance full of honesty, hard work and belief at Gillingham tomorrow.

That is the City manager’s recipe for success as he heads to Priestfield Stadium in search of his first win since September 13.

Davies wants his players to get back to the kind of form they showed during last month’s five-match unbeaten run.

The Chester boss said: “We’ve got some tough games coming up, but if we remind ourselves of what we were doing ever so well only three or four games ago, it won’t take much to get back to that.

“We were getting results by being honest, working hard and sticking to game plans and believing in ourselves – that’s the big thing.”

Davies has spent the last couple of days trying to get Tuesday’s 6-1 defeat at Rochdale out of his system.

He watched a rerun of the match on Wednesday – but joked yesterday that he waited until “after the watershed” because it was x-rated stuff.

“It wasn’t an easy watch,” admitted Davies. “It wasn’t a nice night. We must learn from that. You must remember how horrible it was and if we can learn from that, then it will be good in the long run.”

The City boss admits he has had to think back to his team’s unbeaten run through September to restore the confidence he has in his squad.

He said: “I’m realistic in terms of where we’re at and the squad we’ve got. When you think back about the run we had after the Barnet game onwards, you have to reassure yourself you have got quality within your team and you can do well if we do the right things.

“I’ve had to go back to that in my mindset and reassure myself that we can do things if we stick together and do our game plan.”

For tomorrow’s long trek to Gillingham, Davies is optimistic that defender Shaun Kelly will return to the squad after shaking off a back injury. Glenn Rule is suspended following his sending off at Spotland, so City’s defensive resources are stretched.

Laurence Wilson (ankle) is still one to three weeks away from a first-team return and Richie Partridge (groin) is also unlikely to feature either tomorrow or against Brentford on Tuesday.

As for the play-off chasing Gills, Davies said: “They’re big and strong and they work hard for each other. When we were at our best, that’s what we were doing.”