Bees keeper happy to prove doubters wrong

David Raya believes he is proving his doubters wrong by emerging as a top first-choice goalkeeper during Brentford’s promotion push.

The 24-year-old was signed from Blackburn Rovers last summer amid question marks over his reliability, following a number of mistakes at his former club.

But the Spaniard, who has played in every Championship game so far this season, is currently on a run of five consecutive clean sheets as the Bees chase automatic promotion to the Premier League.

“Obviously with Blackburn last year, I didn’t have a good end to the season for myself. There were a few mistakes in there,” he said.

“But coming to Brentford was a fresh start and I wanted to show what I’m capable of, and I’m happy with my development and training. I’m happy with season so far.

“I have improved every single aspect of my game. We changed the goalkeeping coach in Christmas time, with Inaki (Cana Pavon) and now with Andy (Quy).

“And the things I’ve improved the most are my aerial game and distribution. Improving those was very important for me and for the team to achieve as much as possible.”

Brentford host Charlton at Griffin Park tonight and Raya seemed unconcerned by boss Thomas Frank’s comment that staying focused during the run-in will be “tricky”.

“When we came back from the lockdown we just said let’s have a go, play how we know, and see where it takes us,” he said.

“We have been keeping concentrated game-by-game, like we always do, and we’ll see where we are at the end.”
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