KELVIN Davis admitted his stunning display against Leeds is a contender for the best performance of his career.

The Saints keeper produced a string of remarkable saves that somehow preserved a 1-0 win against a rampant Leeds side at Elland Road. The club captain was mobbed by his grateful teammates at the final whistle, as Nigel Adkins’ men took another major step towards promotion.

While Davis, left, was unable to completely quantify the magnitude of his performance, he was in no doubt it was one of his best ever.

“It’s got to be up there,” he said. “When it happens you never think it’s the best game you’ve ever had.

“You always think you’ve done better somewhere along the line.

“Maybe it’s not until a couple of years further when I look back on it and say it was.”

Saints manager Nigel Adkins described Davis as “unbeatable” although the keeper himself stopped short of any such declaration.

“I felt good, I felt confident, I felt strong,” he said.

“But when you’ve played as many games as I have, you always look at those thinking ‘come on lads, we need another goal, we need to stop giving them chances.’ “Sometimes you get that little thought creep in your mind that they’re having the ball and having a lot of the opportunities and one of these just might go in.

“So in football you never feel that you’re totally unbeatable, although I did feel that anything that was in and around me I was going to save.”

Davis, who hailed the “determination” and “team spirit” of the players in front of him, ranked his double save from Luciano Becchio early in the second half as the best of an incredible bunch.

He said: “The one where I came and got in the mix-up with the cross with Jos (Hooiveld), which I came to try and punch and we ran into each other, so then to get back on the line it’s almost one of those hopeful saves.

“You know you’ve got to do everything to keep it out of the net as a goalkeeper and it’s almost a desperation save.”

As the Saints players and coaches filed out of Elland Road, there was certainly a sense that Saturday’s result could be a defining moment in their push for the Premier League.

“I hope so, I really do,” said Davis, when asked about it.

“I hope we can look back on it and say it was a massive three points.

“It keeps us where we want to be. But Reading won, so they’re on our heels.

“If we didn’t take three points we’d have been looking at it as a negative.”