Barnsley’s captain Adam Davies placing his focus on ‘unbelievable’ double

After savouring some delicious post-match scenes at Wembley in May 2016 with team-mates, family and friends alike after the Reds returned to the Championship following League One play-off final success, Davies is hankering understandably for a reprise.

For the Barnsley goalkeeper, wearing the captain’s armband would add symbolism to a second promotion of his Oakwell career – and even eclipse those glorious memories of a few seasons ago.

More especially because it could also represent his Reds swansong with his contract up in the summer and discussions on his future having been put on hold while he concentrates on the pressing task in hand.

What a parting gift that would be should Davies leave the club at the end of the season.

On the prospect of leading the Reds back to the second tier the 26-year-old, the sole surviving member from the side who secured a remarkable promotion in 2015-16, said: “I have thought about this when I have been at home.

“Getting promoted with this team would be absolutely fantastic and to be the captain of the side to get promoted would be like the cherry on top of it.

“It would be unbelievable. Hopefully we can do that. It drives me on.

“It has been some journey (at Barnsley) and it has been fantastic and I have loved every minute of it.

“Getting promoted was the best day of my life, other than my child’s birth. To get another one would be fantastic.”

On the topic of his own future at the club, ahead of a Spring that will be definitive for self and side, the Wales international remains relaxed.

He added: “I have had an absolutely fantastic five years here. We will probably sit down towards the end of the season with the club and see what they are thinking. It has been great.

“I am absolutely open-minded. We have not spoken at all about it (yet). My focus is totally on my football at the minute and come the end of the season we will see where I am at.

“My main aim is to get promoted and this team back into the Championship. That is where we all deserve to be. My total focus is on that.”

Wholly attuned to the present, Davies and his colleagues are conscious of having several more hills to climb before the sweet strains of ‘the Reds are going up’ can be heard.

Ahead of the run-in the omens look promising with Barnsley in second place.

An 11-match unbeaten league sequence featuring an eye-catching eight wins would attest to that as the Reds prepare to host the last side who lowered their colours in League One in Wycombe Wanderers, who beat them 1-0 at Adams Park on December 8.

It is on home soil where Barnsley have been so reassuringly consistent, so much so that Davies has not tasted defeat in an Oakwell fixture in over a year, going back to January 2018.

This solidity in terms of home form and momentum is evoking memories from the club’s express form in the second half of their last promotion season and the Reds’ captain sees parallels.

Davies, who missed Barnsley’s last home defeat to Millwall in March due to the impending birth of his baby daughter Porter, said: “I have talked a little bit about the momentum we had (in 2015-16) and you felt kind of unstoppable a little bit at the time.

“That is what we are trying to do and we have built up this little run we have been on and hopefully we can keep that going.

“We felt we could beat anyone (in 15-16) and that is the mentality we have got to have now.

“The momentum you can take into the last period of games is massive and teams will look at it and say, ‘these are doing well.’ We have got to carry it on and keep focused.

“We always believed we would have a run. I always said to the lads, ‘Stick to the path to Christmas’ and this is now called the business end of the season and you have to put the results together and hopefully we can carry that on.”

The Reds will be without top-scorer Kieffer Moore for their forthcoming home games with Wycombe and Burton after he was stretchered off with concussion after falling heavily in the 82nd minute of the 4-1 victory at Gillingham last weekend.

Moore, who was kept in hospital on Saturday night as precaution, has been recuperating at home, but will not train this week.

Revealing the depth of concern of team-mates at the time of his injury at the Priestfield Stadium, Davies acknowledged: “It was not nice to see him stretchered off with the gas and air and stuff. It was a horrible sight to see.

“But we got the messages from the physios to say he was talking and all there and that was great and hopefully he can recover quickly.”