Gotta give him credit tonight. One of the best players on the pitch. The only way they could beat him was with a fluke and he saved a well taken penalty. It was great to see him confidentally coming and catching crosses in and around his own six yard box. A couple of good saves and was positive coming off his line to the edge of his box on a few occasions.
I suspect Steele is the victim of being a long serving player. We've had it before with the likes of Nicky Eaden where we've seen him so often that you dwell on the negatives and forget the good things that he contributes every game. I was talking to a mate about him on Saturday and he said that he rated him but that he rarely 'won' us a game. Suffice to say, he did that last night. A great shot stopper, rarely makes errors..we could do a lot worse. Need to improve on his kicking from dead balls though, drives me up the wall when he punts it into touch. Odd really because when he's under pressure from a forward his clearances are usually excellent.
Credit to Luke where it's due. He's still an exceptional shot stopper, I just think he's got a little complacent. No real competition for him, even when Steele looks short on confidence. I sometimes wonder if being captain also makes him lose focus of getting the basics right, as it seemed to do with Foster when he was made captain after Howard left. I can't comment on the game last night as work got in the way, but I certainly think he's still a top goalkeeper, and we should be looking to extend his contract sooner rather than later.
I think he deserved MoM even without the penalty save. There were several excellent saves which he would have been pilloried for had he not been so confident and accurate.
