Ben Davies has cranked up the stakes for Shrewsbury Town’s visit to moneybags Notts County this weekend by backing both clubs to be League Two promotion contenders.

Davies will come up against his former club on Saturday – just three months after rejecting a contract to stay at Shrewsbury to join Notts County, who have been transformed by Middle East investment.

The Meadow Lane clash has been given extra intrigue as it will be the first game in charge for the hosts’ new manager Hans Backe, who was appointed yesterday after previously being No 2 to County’s director of football Sven Goran Eriksson during his time at Manchester City.

Ambitious clubAnd Davies insists an important three points will be up for grabs against two teams currently occupying play-off spots.”Our aim from the start has always been automatic promotion and we are in a decent position at the moment,” said Davies. “Finishing in the top three in this division is never easy but hopefully we can be up there and I think Shrewsbury will be too.”It’s not long ago that they were on a great run of four straight victories.”They are an ambitious club with some really good players and a really good manager so I can’t see a reason they won’t be up there challenging come the end of the season.”Davies admitted only “time will tell” whether he made the correct decision to swop the Prostar Stadium for Meadow Lane in the summer.”Footballers make decisions all the time about their futures and you live and die by them,” he added.”I have signed a three year contract and only at the end of that will I know if it was the right choice.”Davies, however, admitted he is enjoying the roller-coaster ride at County, which has seen the shock introduction of Eriksson, the coup of signing Sol Campbell only for the former Arsenal, Tottenham and England defender to leave after one game and the sacking of manager Ian McParland.”You don’t know what is going to happen next here but it’s exciting times to be involved in,” added Davies.”We are all privileged to have Sven here and he is an absolute gent. He doesn’t do much coaching but he’s on the training ground every day and has always said to us that his door is open to anyone.”When you see the teams he has managed it’s great to have someone like that at the club.”