Manchester United Goalkeeper Coach Eric Steele has backed Peterborough United goalkeeper Joe Lewis to play at the highest level and believes the 20-year-old has had an 'incredible' 13 months.

During that spell, Lewis has moved for a club record £400,000, played 50 first team league appearances, represented England at under 21 level and been called into the senior squad for a fixture against Trinidad and Tobago.

'Joe doesn't become a great goalkeeper overnight and he doesn't become a bad goalkeeper overnight,' Steele told the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire breakfast show. 'He is a young, good goalkeeper, still learning, still maturing and he needs some time and patience. The manager and the staff will back him and I think he needs that little bit of support.

'The Posh supporters I know used to encourage, and be very understanding, whether the air has changed down there I don't know, but I am asking, just have a bit of patience because you have a good young goalkeeper who will go on and have a very good career.

'That boy has done incredibly well in the last 13 months, I was lucky enough to work with him when I was at Manchester City. He was on-loan at Morecambe and he trained two days a week with me, so he worked alongside Joe Hart and Kasper Schmeichal and you saw a very young, raw goalkeeper and when you look what has happened to him in the last 13 months it is astonishing.

'A £400,000 transfer, 50 games in the first team, going to Trinidad with England, under 21 cap and the club are third in the league. Goalkeepers are late developers, they don't get the chance to come off the substitutes bench, they have to wait for their chance and they need time to adjust,' Steele said.