Jay Bird taking his Exeter City chance after returning to fitness

FOR any player joining a new club, they want to get off to a good start. Whether it be a goalkeeper making a crucial save, a defender with a timely block or intervention, midfielder with a key pass or assist, or a striker grabbing that first goal.

That was the situation Jay Bird found himself in after joining exeter-city-fc>Exeter City from Scottish side Arbroath in the summer, but no sooner had he arrived in Devon than the 23-year-old striker picked up an injury. What made it worse was that he had been handed the number 31 shirt, designated to the player whose wages would be part-funded by a group of Exeter City fans.

However, the wait has been worth it for those supporters that pay his wages – and the Red Army as a whole – with a fit-again Bird notching two goals in a week to help the Grecians to a 3-2 EFL Trophy win at Bristol Rovers and an epic 5-3 FA Cup first round win over Barnet last weekend.

“It’s been a good week,” Bird said. “Obviously I had a hard time at the club when I first came in due to injuries and having my time limited, but I am just glad that I am back out there and helping the team.

“I have really enjoyed my time here so far. I mean, it was a tough start for me when I came in and got that injury, but I was looked after on and off the pitch, which was a bit frustrating because all I wanted to do was come here and play football but I feel like, in the long run, it has worked out.

“It was frustrating for me and the fans. Obviously they see someone come in and you’d expect to see them on the pitch which obviously didn’t happen straight away, so to be able to get on the pitch and show people here what I can do has made my time here a lot better.”

Reflecting on the move back south of the border, Bird said: “I wanted to move back down to England and the move to Exeter fitted in with what I wanted to do. Coming here and seeing the place and playing here, it was definitely the best decision.”

Bird’s two goals so far were very different. The first, at Rovers, an instinctive close-range header from a perfect Mustapha Carayol cross, while the second against the Bees had an element of comedy about it.

With the tie level at 3-3, and deep into stoppage time, Bird latched onto a perfectly weighted through ball by Kamari Doyle to find himself one-on-one with the Barnet goalkeeper. As he tried to round him, Bird tripped over but, off-balance and falling to the floor, he managed to keep his composure by expertly slipping the ball past the Bees shot-stopper and into the net with his left foot.

“Kami has played a good ball to begin with and I am one-on-one,” Bird said of the goal. “I have seen the ‘keeper on one side of the goal, so I thought I would go with the outside of the boot, but as I got closer, I thought: ‘actually, I could go round him.’

“As I have gone to drag it, I have slipped and landed on my right knee, but managed to scoop it with my left foot! The main thing is that it went in.

“I had two chances before that, which I should have put away and the one I scored covers it up a bit, but you can’t let any (missed) chances play on your mind, or be at the back of your head. I know I should do better and put them in the back of the net.”

Bird made his first start for City in that Trophy win at Rovers, but had made four substitute appearances before that, accumulating 39 minutes of action.

“That was the main thing, on my first start as well,” he said. “It was nice to score – the manager said to go and score and help the team to win and I am glad that I did.

“The main thing for me now is to get into the team, give the manager a decision on who to play and give him a few sleepless nights. The manager has talked about keeping your shirt and pushing to get further into the team, so that is definitely one of my main focuses.

“I don’t want to just show the manager, I want to show the fans as well what I am capable of.”