Davies so keen to be a loan star

Kevin Davies says he is desperate to kick-start his career at Millwall after hitting the bad times at Blackburn and then Southampton.

The 25-year-old striker is in on loan with Mark McGhee's team from the St Mary's club for a month and says he is looking for a permanent move at the end of the season.

Davies went to Blackburn for £7.5 million in 1998 from Southampton, but injuries and loss of form wrecked his stay there and he returned to Saints 14 months later.

Gordon Strachan then became manager a year ago and the former England Under-21 international fell out of favour at the end of last season. He has not played a firstteam game for them since April.

He played in Millwall's 1-0 defeat at Portsmouth on Saturday, but before the move he knew so little about the club courting him he had to look them up on his computer.

He said: "I didn't know a lot about Millwall. I'm not a big follower of football and I have been at Southampton for three years, but I looked on the Internet and saw they were unlucky last year with the play-offs.

"The manager seemed keen to take me and I'm playing in the reserves at Southampton. It's nice to be wanted and a relief to be playing first-team football again. I want to show I am the same player I was a few years ago.

"I need to prove a few people wrong, but I have got something to prove to myself more than anyone else. I had a good preseason at Southampton, but something's not right. I've been doing well and been overlooked. I'm in the last year of my contract-at Saints and it does not look like there is a future there, so it is a case of earning another contract and this is the next step. I have a one-month deal and we'll see where we go from there."

Davies had only had an hour of training with his new team-mates before playing Portsmouth and reckons it will take him a few more games to adapt properly with the next being at Burnley tomorrow night.

He added: "I was disappointed with my performance, but it was my first competitive match for a long time and I was playing with new players and in a different system, so it was quite tough. But I am quite confident and I have got a game under my belt. Hopefully I will improve for the next match because I need to kick-start my career."