Barnsley FC captain and number one, Adam Davies spoke with the media at Oakwell today, taking a look back at the festive period so far ahead of Saturday's latest Sky Bet League One clash with Charlton Athletic.
Back-to-back victories achieved over the Christmas period have seen Barnsley climb back into the playoff positions and Welsh international stopper Davies knows the last few games have been important for his side's chances this season of getting back into the Championship at the first attempt.
“It’s been a good start to the period,” he told us.
“The win at Blackpool and then to back that up on Boxing Day against Peterborough, it’s satisfying because we knew this was going to be an important period for us. A tough run of games but against direct rivals.
“The gaffer emphasised that, and I emphasised that too to the lads, that we maintain our form, that we pick up points and keep climbing back up that table going into the New Year.
"We all know what the objective is and if we keep performing, keep learning then we should be good enough."
The results have improved in recent weeks, but the Reds have also been much tighter at the back.
Davies explained that some hard work in training has gone into that in order to increase the side's ability to pick up the required results on matchday.
As he told us: “We’ve really been concentrating on the defensive side of our game in recent weeks on the training ground. If you keep clean sheets in this league then we know we’ve got the quality to score goals at the other end.
“We create a lot of chances to win games, so if we’re concentrating and defensively-mindful we know we’ll give ourselves the best chance to pick up three points.”
Seven points from the last nine on offer with just the one goal conceded, it appears that the training ground efforts have begun to pay off.
But the Reds' skipper also pointed to the defeat at Wycombe, describing that as a wake-up-call.
“That result gave us a kick up the backside,” Davies asserted.
“It was a tough game was that. They sat in deep and made it difficult for us. It’s something else we’ve worked on in training recently, how to break down sides who’ll shut up shop, how to get in behind and negate their tactics. So it was a wake-up-call really.
“But it was a horrible game there, and we’ve certainly reacted how I wanted us to in the last three games and hopefully we can keep learning, keep getting results and we’ll be where we want to be come the end of the season.”
Charlton visit Oakwell having lost last time out on Boxing Day, but having already beaten Barnsley at The Valley in October, they'll travel with confidence.
Adam is mindful of that defeat and the qualities they possess, but feels that if the Reds players take on board the lessons they're learning, there's no reason why 2018 can't be finished off in the perfect manner this Saturday.
“We weren’t at it that afternoon, I think defensively we were sloppy, particularly in the first 20 minutes or so.
“It’s another test for us. I’m sure they’ll be coming here fancying their chances to repeat it, but like I say, we’re always trying to improve and if we take what we’ve been doing in the last few games into Saturday then we are capable of getting a result that takes us nicely into 2019.”
