With the season now at an end, over the course of the next few weeks owls-mad will be assessing the contribution of each Wednesday player during the 2007/08 season, starting today with goalkeeper Lee Grant.
Grant joined the Owls in the close season after his release from Derby County and over the course of the summer he managed to establish himself as the Owls number one, ahead of fellow new signing, Rob Burch.
This was always going to be a difficult position to fill given the fine performances of the previous incumbent, Iain Turner. Turner, who joined the Owls on loan in the final few months of the 2006/07 season was a key player in the team's excellent but his parent club Everton were reluctant to let him leave and so Wednesday were forced to look elsewhere.
Grant got off to a very unsure start in the 4-1 opening day drubbing at Ipswich and this continued as Wednesday slumped to further defeats early on, with question marks being raised about his positional sense and ability to command his area, most notably in some of the goals conceded against Charlton away and Leicester at home.
However, as the Owls performances and results improved during November, so seemingly did Grant's confidence and during this time he kept 4 clean sheets in 5 games.
From this point onwards, many of the mistakes had been eradicated and Grant seemed to be settling into the club and his position as number one and the Owls defensive record belied their poor league position.
During the crucial run-in there were one or two errors-the goals from distance by Ipswich and Scunthorpe were disappointing- but it is impossible to deny that Grant made a number of vital saves.
His performances against Colchester away, the second-half at Bramall Lane and the first-half at Leicester enabled the Owls to pick up some major points in the battle against relegation and even on Sunday he pulled off a great save to prevent Norwich from going 2-0 up which would have heaped pressure on the team.
I was unconvinced by Grant at the start but I am more than happy to say that he has proved me wrong of late and although I feel the Owls need another keeper who will give him a genuine fight for the number one spot, if he can assert more command of his penalty area and otherwise pick up where he left off this season then Grant would be well worth his place in the side.
Overall verdict on the season: 7.5 out of 10. Grew in confidence and won the fans over, one of the few positives from the season.