If Kelvin Davis is selected to play against Leicester City it will be his 300th appearance in all competitions for Southampton Football Club

Kelvin Davis will celebrate his ninth anniversary of being a Southampton player this summer and he will do so, assuming no selection surprises with over 300 appearances for the club under his belt, although if he does retain his spot for the remainder of the season then then although the Leicester game marks the 300th game, the final fixture against Manchester City will be his 300th start,his appearance break down is as follows.

League 266 (2 as sub)
FA Cup 14
League Cup 11
JPT Trophy 6

It cannot be denied that Kelvin has been a great servant for Southampton Football Club, but it has not been a smooth ride and it was only in his third season at St Mary's, ironically Saints worst in recent times due to relegation to League One that he truly established himself as a fixture in Saints goal and won over the supporters.

In his first season he was not a success and although Saints would get in the play offs he found himself dropped for the last two months of the season in favour Of Bart Bialkowski, although he would return for the play off second leg at Derby County.

In his second season he started as second choice, but it was felt at the time that manager George Burley threw Bialkowski to the wolves in the opening games and he was soon restored to the gloves although this would be far from the promotion chase of the previous year and after being injured at Wolves (the team not the ones that savaged Bialkowski) he had again played his last league game with two months ago, this time playing second fiddle to the on loan Richard Wright who was a revelation and di more than most to keep Saints up.

So it was to be season 2008/09 that he would finally be seen as a long term option in the Saints goal and in doing so win over the fans, yes Saints would be relegated, but although he would ship a lot of goals, he would also save a fair few as well. His reward was to be voted the fans player of the year, much of the credit for his resurgence was given to one of the goalkeeping coaches at Staplewood, Keith Granger who rose to fame when replacing Peter Shilton for the final two games of 1985/86 as a raw 16 year old.

2009/10 would be another succesful season, although he might have started it at West Ham, but he preferred to play rather than sit on the bench with the Hammers, and he would cap that with an appearance at Wembley in the Johnstones Paint Trophy final which of course also earned him a winners medal and he also was named in the League One team of the year.

2010/11 would see Saints go back up to the Championship and now he was firmly established in the Saints goal as well as seemingly the League One team of the year which he again featured in.

The summer of 2011 saw him sign a contract extension and he was to play a big part in Saints going straight through the Championship and back to the Premier, perhaps his greatest game for the club came that season in Saints 1-0 win against Leeds United in a televised game at Elland Road, he was unbeatable and to be blunt without that performance it could have been 4 or 5-1 to Leeds. This performance helped him get a place in the Championship team of the year to complement his previous two seasons awards

Sadly though the Premier would be a step too far and although he would save a penalty on the opening weekend's fixture at Man City he would concede 14 goals in the opening 4 games and found himself dropped.

This marked the end of his time as first choice keeper as the emergence of Artur Boruc in the second half of this season along with Paulo Gazzaniga as back up even saw him as low as third in the pecking order a situation that was the norm for 2013/14 when he would play only 2 Premier League games.

However he would wrack up a few cup appearances, but with the signing of Fraser Forster it looked like he would struggle to reach that magical 300 mark with Ronald Koeman playing his strongest side for cup games.

So a few weeks ago it looked like he would fall short of marking his years with Saints with that landmark number, until the unfortunate injury to Forster.

Most had assumed that this would be his last season with Saints and that he would perhaps be offered a coaching role at the club in the summer as reward for his service, now he will hit that 300 mark it seems and in doing so can truly join a select few who have managed that for Saints and in today's modern age it is likely that he could well become the last Saints player to do so.

Im sure all Saints fans hope that he hits thislandmark and celebrates it with a clean sheet at Leicester on Saturday

Photo: Action Images

corkcitysaint added 10:39 - May 8 He has been a great servant for the club and when he retires from playing, should be given a role in the backround I believe. Here's hoping he adds another 0 tomorrow. 0 goals conceded..
0

GeordieSaint added 14:23 - May 8 I was at that game at Leeds and it was a legendary performance. Added to that I had a few quid on 1v0 so loved him twice as much. Fair enough he is not quite premier league standard but a trophy and two promotions for the club says it all. I seem to remember he was taking all the goalkeeper training when Saints were in administration because everyone else had left due to not getting paid. That seems a different lifetime.

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Southampton Polls