ANYONE who has seen glimpses of Steve Davies in a City shirt so far will vouch for his competitive streak.

"I hate losing – it's as simple as that," said the striker, who is set to make his first start in the Capital One Cup opener at York tonight.

"I want to win every game, it doesn't matter who we're up against. I'm just a very sore loser.

"If you're in a winning side, it breeds confidence for everyone. And if we put in a good performance tonight, I'm sure those players will be in the manager's thinking come Saturday."

Davies makes no bones about his one true aim with the Bantams – to win promotion from League One. A strong display in a Yorkshire derby at Bootham Crescent would push his own credentials for a regular role towards that.

City can expect a feisty reception from their League Two neighbours, who will be keen to turn the tables on last season's giant-killing kings.

Davies said: "That will be the case everywhere we go this season. This club is in a false position – and that's probably one of the reasons why I joined.

"No matter who we play, everyone is coming up against a big club and a very good team, so they're going to have to be on top form to beat us.

"York are going to be up for it. They had a bad result at the weekend, like ourselves, so we know what to expect."

Davies came off the bench in City's season opener shortly after Swindon had scored their second goal but was powerless to prevent the home side continuing to run riot on their way to a 4-1 win.

He said: "To come on at that time when they'd wrestled full control of the game was tough – but I'm not someone who shies away. I tried my best but it was too far gone.

"We'd played really well in the first half but looked a shadow of that in the second. It was a difficult day but this is our chance to bounce back straight away."

Davies got as far as the League Cup semi-finals with Derby in 2009, playing in both games as they went down 4-3 on aggregate to eventual winners Manchester United.

He said: "Every time I've got pretty far in cups, I've ended up playing United and they've knocked us out. It happened in the FA Cup quarter-finals as well.

"The cup runs are great experiences but for myself personally, I don't look at York City any differently to if we were playing Liverpool. I just see 11 players in front of me and I want to be doing my best to beat them."