Kevin Davies is aiming to follow the Beat after ending his 16-game goal drought in midweek.

The striker's goal against Tottenham was his first since April 15 and he would dearly love to embark on the kind of goalscoring run which his pal James Beattie has enjoyed recently.

After 18 months without a goal, Beattie has now hit nine in nine matches and Davies has high hopes he can follow suit.

He has always been a confidence player who tends to score in bursts. Last season he got three in three at this time of year and in his previous stint at The Dell he got four in four.

He said: "Once I get one goal I tend to go on a bit of a run and score a few more. Hopefully I can now get on another roll and bang in a few more.

"You see what it has done for Beats to get the first goal. His confidence is sky-high and everything he hits seems to go in because he has the belief to try things. He does not seem to be scoring many tap-ins!

"So much of the game is about confidence. When they are going in you strike the ball much more cleanly, if they are not then you tend to snatch at chances. As Gary Lineker said on Match of the Day: 'Snatchers don't score.'

"I would not say it played on my mind ahead of games that I had not scored for so long but it did lift a bit of a burden from me when that one went in against Tottenham. I had a good chance in the first minute but had to stretch for it a bit to cut it back but it hit the sidenetting.

"I was gutted for a couple of minutes but I just had to forget about it and get on with the game."

Davies then hit the roof of the stand from 20 yards and smiled: "The ball took a bobble just before I hit it - honest!

"So it was quite a relief when I did score. It was a lovely cross from Marian but there was not a lot of space for me to squeeze the shot in.

"It is something we work on a lot in training. With three up front, the gaffer wants the me to arrive in the box from a wide position if Marian has the ball and vice versa.

"It is a tough job because if the ball does not arrive then you have to get back quickly to stop the opposition breaking. I just took a gamble and bombed in there and he picked me out.

"It had been so long since I scored that I had forgotten what to do! But I was pretty happy and it is something for me to feed off in these next two games over New Year."

Saints take on Derby at The Dell tomorrow before facing Liverpool at Anfield on Monday and Davies knows it is a vital spell for the club.

He added: "The win over Tottenham was the first in a run of four out of five games at home. If we can follow that up with wins over Derby and Charlton then we will be in a much healthier position.

"Nothing less than a win tomorrow will do. That can lift us up towards mid-table and restore our cushion over sides who have just sneaked up on us lately.

"We don't want to be going into March still needing ten or 12 points to stay up."