Barnsley goalkeeper Adam Davies is set to pass 150 appearances for the club during the Christmas period and he hopes that coincides with a continued turnaround in the team's form.
The 25-year-old, who has played every minute of the Oakwell club's last 114 matches since November 2015, has now appeared 148 times after arriving from Sheffield Wednesday in 2014 having not made his professional debut. He is likely to pass the 150-game mark on Boxing Day at home to Preston North End, following tomorrow's trip to Fulham.
Davies told the Chronicle: "It will be a really good milestone. If you had told me I would play 150 when I came here I would have been over the moon. I just want to keep playing games and keep improving. I am very proud of my run of starts but I just need to concentrate on each game and make sure I am at my best."
Davies made errors against Cardiff City, Leeds United and Bolton Wanderers in the first three games of Barnsley's five-match losing run which ended with a 0-0 draw at Brentford on Saturday. He said: "I don't shy away from when I don't perform at my best. But I am always training hard to improve myself. All the players have not been at it recently. It's not just one person, it's been mistake after mistake."
Davies appeared to be back at his top level at Griffin Park, making several impressive saves including flinging himself to his left to deny a long-range Ollie Watkins deep in injury-time. He said: "It would have been heart-breaking for that to go in after battling for 90-odd minutes. It was a good save but the lads gave me the best chance by making sure it was a shot from distance and I will normally back myself to save them.
"I am very pleased with the clean sheet and the draw. We didn't really expect that run of defeats but we went away from what we had been doing. Defensively we have been nowhere near our best in the past couple of weeks but we have been working a lot towards it in training and it worked at Brentford. Defensively we were fantastic.
"There was a massive difference, you could see the confidence in the lads and everyone started to believe a bit more. It's something to build on. No one wants to be in a rut like we have been and that game was hopefully a big step to getting back to where we were four or five weeks ago. We are a young group and it won't be plain sailing all season.
"We have got a lot of young lads and it's all new to them. There are a few older lads like me who are trying to show them the way and to keep confidence up."
Davies has been Barnsley's captain for half of this season as Angus MacDonald has missed 12 of the 25 games through suspension, injury and, most recently, an illness which caused him to come off midway through the 3-0 loss at Reading last month.
Davies said: "It's an honour. I enjoy having that leadership and trying to give as much advice as I can and trying to show the young lads what we're about as a team and a club. I thought we showed that at Brentford and hopefully we can carry it on."
