He could hardly have failed to note that Villa were, on average, conceding about two goals per game. This was just about balanced by the heavy scoring of Tammy Abraham, enough to turn defeats into draws but not enough to push Villa up the table. The return of another loanee, Tommy Elphick, plus deals for Kortney Hause and Tyrone Mings meant some blessed relief for the brave James Chester who had been getting through games with the help of pre-match injections. Suddenly, the boss seemed to have real options; the reality was that the two loan players had been out of action for so long you could almost see the rust dropping off them during their initial matches.

Eventually form began to return, but it was a slow process. Kalinic also began to improve, his valiant effort between the sticks at Brentford giving hope that the days of the open defence would soon be over. Then came a calamity; in a disappointing home defeat to West Brom Kalinic suffered a head injury. In hindsight, he should have been taken off straight away. Instead, he was brave enough to stay out there, but the wisdom of doing this was called into question by the nature of the two goals he promptly conceded. At the break the decision was taken, and once again Jed Steer took over the gloves. It would be nice to praise Jed for the second-half clean sheet he produced; in fact, West Brom, quite happy with the two they had already nicked, hardly crossed the halfway line after the break.

Villa took the concussion issue seriously, which meant that Jed started in goal for the subsequent trip to Stoke. The pre-match tribute to the recently-deceased Gordon Banks was the most memorable event of the day in a one-all draw where Villa found some semblance of form in the second period. Relieved at picking up a point, no-one talked of the green shoots of revival. Well, not for a few weeks, anyway. Villa were stuck below mid-table with many fans hoping for a strong end to the season to boost the mood for a serious crack at promotion next time round. To those who prefer their answers nice and simple, the return of Jack Grealish after a three-month absence explains everything.

Grealish’s obvious talent was a major factor in the team’s improvement, but so was the stronger defensive showings now Mings and Hause were up to speed. The club’s only left-back, Neil Taylor, came back from injury and stayed fit for a long run. Conor Hourihane recovered his form; McGinn’s return from a two-game suspension saw his game more supercharged than ever. Glenn Whelan’s calm distribution and snap in the tackle demanded regular selection. Mile Jedinak became the Glue Man, filling the gaps when others were absent. While all this was going on, Tammy Abraham carried on scoring.

Behind this little lot stood Jed Steer. Jed’s calmness with the ball at his feet, secure handling of crosses and good communication with his backline saw the goals against column start to dry up. It doesn’t sound like much, but just going about your business without any fuss and bother made a huge difference.

In addition, there were a few standout moments for the cameras; a penalty save at a crucial point of the game at Hillsborough, a startling one-handed reaction stop in an unforgettable comeback win at Rotherham. But mostly it was Jed doing the boring stuff – and doing it well – while the team ran rings around the opposition. Thus it was that the side put together a record run of ten consecutive wins to take them flying into the play-offs, where West Brom loomed large.

In two tense, tight games, there were few enough moments of individual brilliance to savour. Those who insist on Man of the Match awards could have done worse than selecting Jed Steer. His first half finger-tip save from (Hand Of) Rodriguez was the very definition of the breathtaking stop and prevented the over-cautious visitors from taking an early lead. For the remainder of the two-legged tie,Jed was mostly a spectator, but those who saw the games will recall forever the events that followed an inconclusive period of extra-time at the Hawthorns.

A feature of the modern game is to prepare to the utmost. Knockout matches must have a decision if the scores are level. The penalty shoot-out has thus become part of the furniture of the sport. It falls on goalkeepers and their coaches to make sure they have done their homework on the other side’s penalty experts in the days prior to the match.

All this left Jed Steer with something of a problem; who would be West Brom’s shooters? Any preparation might have covered forwards like Hal Robson-Kanu, Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriguez. But unprincely Hal had got himself sent off in the last proper league game at Derby for aiming a kick at an opponent, thus incurring a three-match ban. Gayle was dismissed at Villa Park for two yellow cards while Rodriguez was taken off near the end of normal time at the Hawthorns for reasons unknown. Another candidate must have been Chris Brunt but he, too, had been sent off for the last of three violent assaults on John McGinn.

So who would be taking the penalties? Jed might have been asking the same question and looked towards goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler on the bench to see if any help was forthcoming from that direction. In casting his glance that way he happened to catch the eye of Mason Holgate, the home defender delegated to take the first penalty.

Photos of this incident helped establish the legend that Jed was staring out Holgate as a piece of psychological warfare. In fact, Jed was trying to spot Cutler, but, when he realised that Holgate THOUGHT he’d been caught by the Steer Stare, he realised he was onto a good thing and maintained eye contact for as long as he could. Homework or not, Jed saved Holgate’s poor penalty to his left. His best was when Hegazi, another unranked defender, banged one just inside the post, but Jed palmed it away at full stretch to his right. Villa’s takers finished the job and it was off to Wembley for the second year running.

There, a decent Derby side were hampered by manager Frank Lampard’s excessive caution, just as Villa had been twelve months earlier. Jed had little to do, but his usual clean handling skills came to the fore when Derby mounted a late rush for an equaliser and sent in a series of crosses. The final whistle signalled Villa’s return to the top.

No doubt Jed received a promotion bonus for his efforts. It came with a new four-year contract that gave him a sense of permanency lacking in recent times. The bad news was that Deano wondered whether Jed would be able to handle the pressure of keeping in the Premier League, so brought in Tom Heaton from Burnley to provide some experience to mix in with the new arrivals.

This still allowed Jed the chance to keep himself loose during a League Cup run that went all the way to Wembley. He played a full part in the run but was once again stricken with the bad luck that marked his career. Heaton was unable to play in the league game at Molineux, so Jed was summoned to take the gloves. A mere eight minutes in, he landed on a straight leg after leaping in the air. He immediately went down and was soon helped from the field, Orjan Nyland taking his place. It turned out that Jed had torn his achilles and would miss the rest of the season. Typically, he worked his way back, only to find that his latest misfortune was the club’s signing of the brilliant Emiliano Martinez from Arsenal, where he was laughably deemed not to be first-choice material. An early exit from both domestic cups meant even fewer chances to shine.

2021-22, with Martinez immovable, seemed to offer more of the same. New manager Steven Gerrard sent Jed on loan to Luton Town in January where, in his fifth appearance, he was stretchered off in a cup match with a partial tear to his achilles, yet another setback that would require surgery. It would take all of twenty-two months to recover. By now, some of us might have taken a hint from the sporting gods, but Jed gritted his teeth and got on with it. Alongside his recovery, he worked on his Uefa ‘B’ coaching licence and popped up regularly on the Villa TV co-commentary where his insight into the goalkeeping role and general tactics and formations was always worth a listen.

Despite this, it was clear that his contract at Villa would not be renewed in the summer. To take some of the sadness away from an occasion that saw European qualification for the first time in over a decade, Jed came onto the pitch before the game and spoke brightly of his happy times at the club and received the reception that Villa fans have always given to players who made a mark while trying their best.

There was still one last hurrah to come. Having completed his recovery he signed a short-term deal with Peterborough United. The club had a long run to Wembley in the EFL Trophy where they came up against the might of Small Heath, looking to hoover up lower-division trophies on their way to dominating European football for the next few decades. Apparently. Neither Jed nor Peterborough had read the script and he kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win, and collect his third Wembley winners’ medal.

Partly in response to this, Jed signed a new two-year deal that summer and it looked like he would at least see out his career playing the game he loved. No such luck; a knee injury put him out for five weeks. Having lost his place, it wasn’t clear that he could get it back. The situation was resolved with a mutual agreement between club and player that his contract would be cancelled.