Feature interview with Southampton keeper Kelvin Davis ahead of his testimonial game at St Mary's

Few footballers have gone from public enemy number one to club hero so dramatically, and in such a short period of time.

Davis arrived at Saints in 2006 on the back of a harrowing experience at Sunderland, where he took a lot of the blame for their abysmal Premier League relegation.

Saints were aiming to land back in the Premier League under George Burley.

Results generally didn’t go as well as hoped – culminating in a play-off semi-final defeat – and worst of all for Davis, he made two high profile blunders at home in the opening weeks of his time with the club.

The Daily Echo was besieged by letters from angry fans slating Davis and demanding he was dropped, and the keeper himself was subject to some quite staggering levels of personal abuse.

It all built up to a day at Hillsborough as Saints were getting thrashed by Sheffield Wednesday when Davis couldn’t handle it any more. He snapped.

That moment could have gone either way. It could have been the end of him at Saints, but instead it was the making of him.

In football’s truly fickle way, just a year later some of those same supporters who had slated him were now singing his name.

After ten years with the club he tonight signs off his playing career with a testimonial to celebrate an eventful decade that has seen relegations, administration, promotions, a Wembley final win and Premier League football.

Davis reflected: “It was an up and down start, because even with my debut at Debry away I made a really good save and they scored from the rebound. I can remember thinking that could have been the save to really propel me.

“You always want a good start and I had it when I went to Ipswich. We played Reading on my debut and I made a real fine save down to my right hand side at the right end of the pitch with the fans behind me and it helped a lot.

“I didn’t quite get that here, and I was still battling my scars from that previous season at Sunderland and trying to prove myself. I was probably trying too hard to impress, and too hard to have a good game, to try and create a good start and for it not to go too well.

“The error against QPR at home was on my 30th birthday. Kellie (his wife) had organised a surprise 30th birthday for me and I refused to leave the house.

“I said I couldn’t go out, that it wasn’t right and I felt I had had a beast and the last thing I wanted was to bump into anyone to remind me of that.

“She twisted my arm to go for something to eat and then when I arrived at the restaurant there was 60 or 70 people waiting for me.

“There was a period when she thought I wasn’t going to attend my own surprise party, but I submitted to some persuasive wife talk.”

After that tricky first season came the culmination of all that frustration at Hillsborough, and a real turning point.

“I massively agree with that,” said Davis.

“Looking at the goals one of the five I felt I could have done better on and the others were good goals.

“To hear the fans and the stick I was getting was hard. The switch in my head was when I heard the fans chanting ‘one Bartosz Bialkowksi’ when he was warming up down the sideline.

“That cut quite deep.

“I hadn’t reacted at all to the fans the year before and tried to stay professional, that was the first moment I thought I couldn’t deal with that.

“I turned around to the fans and basically told them where to go.

“Funnily enough, there was a mixed feeling in the crowd that day. Some fans wanted to jump onto the pitch and pull me apart, and there was also a group of fans who seemed to think ‘fair enough, we don’t all feel that way.’ “It was almost a weight off my shoulders and I felt I had got it off my chest, and the fans got it off their chests and we moved on.”

After that moment the tide started to turn for Davis and his bond with the fans, which would endure to this day, was really forged.

“I can remember the first home game of the following season and I made two saves from corners and to be honest they weren’t really that great, but the reaction I got from the fans was enough to tell me I had definitely turned that corner,” he smiled.

“It was a massive lift, and from that period on I just felt like I was back, and it was me, the same goalkeeper that I was at Ipswich before I went to Sunderland.

“Everything fell into place and I was working with Malcolm Webster who had taken me to Ipswich, and in terms of a place to live and everything I had come here for I felt I was where I wanted to be.”

Webster was a key influence on Davis, so too other goalkeeping coaches he would go on to work with at the club, notably Keith Granger.

“I think I’ve been very lucky,” admitted the 39-year-old.

“Malcolm and I had worked together before at Ipswich and at Luton as a kid and I knew him very, very well, so from that side of it I was very fortunate because he knew what made me tick and how to get the best out of me.

“What surprised me was then working with Keith Granger.

“That was the step that I wasn’t expecting, and he took it to a different level and that was where my eyes were opened in terms of how far I could go.

“That was a great experience to do the work we did together.

“Jim Stannard was a good guy and pushed me on and we had two promotions with him here and working with Mauricio and Toni Jimenez, who was a real character to work with day in and day out.

“I finally ended up working with the England goalkeeping coach (Dave Watson) who has been very intense and looks to improve you.

“I’ve worked with some great managers as well, so all in all I have taken a lot from each of them to maybe take into the next stage of my career.”

After 300 games for Saints it is a taxing task to remember a host of individual highs and lows from down the years – his best year being when he voted Player of the Season as Saints were sadly relegated from the Championship - but some memories don’t go away.

“The tough year was the relegation year, and that was tough, because I knew if we got relegated the likelihood was that I would have to move, and therefore the family would have to move,” recalled Davis.

“In the back of my mind was the year at Sunderland and I didn’t want to feel that unhappy again, and that’s where the West Ham story came from.

“I went to West Ham, trained there for two and a half days, hadn’t signed a contract and the club finally got taken over and I got the phone call to say there was a contract.

“The numbers were read out and it was substantially less than the offer I was going to get from West Ham, but having that experience I had at Sunderland of not being happy and my best performance over a season the year we got relegated, I felt it was the right decision to stay.

“I had that draw, I just knew I was coming back for something.

“To kick on and win the Johnston’s Paint Trophy in the first season and then to kick on to get promoted from League One, and then the Championship was amazing.

“That Wembley Cup final alone was worth whatever the difference was in what I would have got paid.”

Of all the standout moments, there is one that, above all others, really puts a massive twinkle in Davis’ eyes whenever it is brought up.

“I always dreamt of playing at Wembley,” he grinned.

“Alright, I didn’t dream of playing in the Paint Trophy, and what Saints fan has, but you tell me a Saints fan who didn’t enjoy that day.

“It was fantastic from start to finish.

“The way we were looked after by the club, the families, right through to winning the game, and that for me was the catalyst for the club to kick on and make that winning mentality.

“We realised we could do it then and then the arrival of Nigel (Adkins) and the success we had in those two seasons to finish competing in the Premier League and then to sustain ourselves is phenomenal.”

• Tickets for tonight's game at St Mary's, which kicks off at 7.30pm, are available from the ticket office opening up until the start of the match priced £14 for adults, £7 for over-65s and 17-21s and £5 for under-17.

Kelvin has chosen to support the Liver and Pancreatic Cancer Research & Development Charity, who are based in Southampton.