KELVIN Davis went for redemption, gained absolution and the Blues keeper is now striving for perfection, writes Derek Davis.He was lambasted after gifting Sunderland their second goal in Town's FA Cup defeat last week but his heroics at Highfield Road earned a valuable point.

KELVIN Davis went for redemption, gained absolution and the Blues keeper is now striving for perfection, writes Derek Davis.

He was lambasted after gifting Sunderland their second goal in Town's FA Cup defeat last week but his heroics at Highfield Road earned a valuable point. The former Luton Town and Wimbledon stopper vowed to team-mates that he would make up for that error and revealed he allows himself just two errors a season – the Black Cats' gift was his last.

After pulling off a number of good saves at Coventry, Davis said: "I try and be realistic and as a goalkeeper. You know you are going to make mistakes but it was important for me against Coventry to dispel a few demons and it was nice to be able to have the work to do that.

"You get judged by your mistakes as a keeper and by setting myself that sort of target then it helps on the mental side. I have challenged myself not to make any more mistakes this season."

Davis made four good saves, the first two in the opening couple of minutes when he denied Stephen Warnock and Michael Doyle.

He said: "The first was a good strike so it was nice to get my hands warmed up early on. And then the second one came quickly but fortunately it stayed quite close to me and I was able to get down to it."

But he saved the best until last and the most impressive came with a back-bending stop to deny Julian Joachim minutes from time with the game poised at one-each.

He said: "It is something I work on in training, the striker should score when he is in that position. If he had hit it into the corner I probably would not have got there but I stood up and he hit it in my general area so I was able to make the save."

Boss Joe Royle was effusive in his praise for Davis, who salvaged a draw that could well be even more significant come May. He said: "Kelvin has made at least two terrific saves. If he cost us a goal in the cup-tie against Sunderland then he has made up for it now. The point might be important at the end of the season."

But modest Davis was quick to point out that he rarely has such busy afternoons, due to the quality of his team-mates – unlike his latter days with the Dons: "It is my job to make those saves. Since I have come to Ipswich I have not had many games like that because they are such a good team. At Wimbledon I was getting those sort of games week in, week out. It is a different type of challenge for me now but I want to improve all the time. Who knows, maybe next season it will be just the one mistake in the season?"