Player Profile: Luke Steele

With Barnsley through to the 5th round of the FA cup, regular keeper Heinz Muller out injured, no back-up and Muller's on loan replacement Tony Warner cup-tied, manager Simon Davey had little choice but to search for yet another loanee to fill the void between the sticks for the upcoming match against Premiership side Liverpool. The search ended when Davey snapped up West Brom keeper Luke Steele on an emergency loan for one month.

A man of the match of the match and FA player of the round performance on his debut helped Barnsley to knock out the Anfield side and sent the reds through to the quarter finals where they would face yet another Premiership giant in the form of Chelsea. A clean sheet helped the Tykes knock the current holders out and saw them reach the semi finals for the first time in 96 years but would Steele be able to take part?

Due to his parent club West Brom also reaching the semi finals and because of FA rules that prevent on loan players from playing against their parent clubs Steele had an anxious wait to see who Barnsley would be drawn against. Fortunately for both Steele and Barnsley it was Cardiff and not West Brom that would be the opposition and so Steele got his day at Wembley. Unfortunately a 1-0 loss would see the team defeated but Steele had done enough with his performances in both the cup and the league to earn himself a permanent transfer and in May 08 he put pen to paper on a one year contract.

Despite not making any notable mistakes in the opening matches of the season Luke was dropped in favour of Muller who was returning from injury and rarely even made it onto the bench for a long period afterwards but with relegation a real threat and just four matches of the season remaining the out of form German giant was dropped and Steele regained his place in the starting line-up.

In the summer Davey had a real headache. He had two good keepers on the books and they couldn't both be number one and so Muller was sold for £600,000 netting the club a tidy profit Steele signed a new contract keeping him at the club for a further two years.

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