Callum Burton says he can feel the confidence building with each match he features between the sticks for Cambridge United.
The U’s keeper has kept three clean sheets in the last five Sky Bet League Two fixtures, having stepped in to cover the injured Dimitar Mitov since late January. And the 24-year old feels reliability in match minutes is helping to improve his concentration.
He said: “Obviously I want to get as many League games and help the team as much as possible. I always feel it’s important to get a run of games.
“It’s harder to come in for the odd game or so. Getting that reliability and having a place in the team more and more builds on your ability and your concentration. We’ve had a good run in cup competitions and I had a run in the team shortly before Dimi got injured as well, so I feel I’ve got the games and learnt from those. I’m pleased to be racking up the minutes again, and I’m hopeful there’s more to come.
“There’s 17 games left now and we want to be as high up the table as possible, so we’ve got to keep doing that, and I’ve to keep doing my job and performing as well.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s goalless draw at the Abbey with Southend United, Burton was pleased to play his role in another resolute defensive display and feels it was just an off day in terms of putting the ball in the net at the other end of the field.
“We go into every game and aim to keep the clean sheet, because we know with Joey, Mulls, Shilow, Knibbsy we’ve got players who more often than not can go win us a game. So we just try to keep the team in it as long as we can. The goal didn’t come, but you can never be too annoyed when you end with a clean sheet.
“Defensively we were still solid and we can be pleased with that, but the other side of the game wasn’t there.”
Burton admits the U’s felt the burn in the changing room post-match of not converting one point into a maximum haul, but looks at the positive of putting right the disappointing defeat at Salford City with a more organised defensive effort.
“As a team collectively we were disappointed not to go out and win the game. We know we’ve got the quality. We wanted to get at them (Southend) more than we did. The conditions first half, the pitch was firm and the wind was a struggle which made it difficult, but we’re not making excuses because we all felt we could have gone on and won the game whatever the conditions. We really thought in the second half we could get the goal to win the game, but it just didn’t come.
“We were pleased to put Tuesday night (4-1 defeat to Salford) right in terms of the clean sheet, but we need to get back to creating chances and scoring now.”