20 years old, five consecutive appearance for the Bees and some quality performances — it's been quite the Christmas period Chris Mepham.
The Welsh under-21 international has had a coming of age season having graduated from Brentford B.
With Dean Smith's men earning three league wins in that time, Mepham has earned the plaudits from his manager but also from fans and he says that's helped him a lot.
The young centre-half said: "I go on social media daily and it's difficult not to look at the feedback you're getting and I've been getting really good feedback recently.
"I do keep up to date with what people are saying about me but it's just important that I focus on myself and don't get too distracted by people but the fans have been really positive and that's helped me a lot going onto the pitch on a Saturday."
However, the defender is thoughtful when he thinks back to his first start of the season against Norwich in the Carabao Cup.
Mepham gave away an early penalty which the Canaries converted on their way to a 3-1 win.
"It has been a really positive couple of months, I didn't have the best of starts against Norwich in that cup game but i feel like I've overcome that and I'm playing with confidence at the minute.
"It's just important you react well to the downs because for a lot of players you have a lot more downs that you do ups.
"Yeah that was a down moment and I came home and looked at where i could have done better, went through my clips and spoke to players and staff.
"I think I've come through well and it's important you do come through set-backs because that's what's going to make you a better player."
The ex-Chelsea trainee is confident in how he has played but realises that his chance only came because of Egan's injury.
Nevertheless he believes he has done enough to at least give his boss a difficult decision.
Mepham said: "I know I've had the opportunity through Johnny getting injured but I'd like to think next time it'll be a case of Chris has done well when he's been in the team.
"I'd like to think I've given the manager enough of a headache. I like to think that but the manager is the one that picks the team on the Saturday so I've just got to make sure I do everything i can to put myself in the best possible position to start the game.
"I'll take a positive out of every situation and Egan is obviously the captain and a very good established Championship player so I've got good competition but friendly competition."
