Ton Up For Super Keeper

The Swansea City keeper appeared to be on the way out of the Liberty at the start of the summer but a family loss, a change of manager and a new contract has kept him at the club and in the best form of his career.

De Vries has been beaten just 10 times in 13 league games and has seven league clean sheets to boot for the side who moved up to 11th place with a win at the league leaders on Tuesday.

That was De Vries 99th league appearance for the Swans and he will take that total to 100 against Blackpool at the Liberty as the team look to continue their rise up the table

De Vries told BBC Sport “It’d be nice to get in the record book but it’s about all the team,” he said in reference to Roger Freestone’s 22 clean sheets in the 1999-2000 season.

“My time here has flown, there’ve been some great times, we’re still progressing – I hope I have many years and games to come.”

It has not always been plain sailing for the Dutchman who was stretchered off against QPR last season after a heavy challenge from Martin Rowlands “The players started calling me Halloween and Phantom of the Opera,” joked the stopper. “The banter helped me through.

“It was a terrible injury but it made me stronger in the end.

“It could have been much, much worse but I’ve never feared going into challenges since the injury.”

De Vries eventually signed a two year contract at the Liberty in the summer and said of the talks “They went on for a long, long time and other clubs became interested, including teams from abroad

“I wanted to see what would happen with all the changes going on at Swansea, to make sure that I was making the right choice.

“But I feel so welcome at the club, I have a great connection with the fans and we play football the right way.

“I made the right choice to sign up for another two years.

“The play-offs have always been a target,” he said. “I’m really confident of another clean sheet against Blackpool and of keeping our run going.

“We’re working so hard in training and it’s showing on the pitch.

“We can still make a lot of progress, we’re doing it bit by bit.

“There’s great potential in this team and the future’s bright at Swansea City.”