Mature display shows Nottingham Forest loanee is on arc of improvement at Sheffield Wednesday

And that’s certainly true in the case of Nottingham Forest’s 20-year-old wide man Alex Mighten, who after a slow start at Sheffield Wednesday has shown signs of real promise in areas of his game that can fairly be described as ‘raw’.

The youngster has started four of Wednesday’s last six league matches and operating at right wing-back completed 90 League One minutes for the first time in their 2-1 win at Fleetwood Town on Boxing Day.

Though he wasn’t as devastating as perhaps would have hoped going forward, Mighten received praise for a diligent defensive display.

The USA-born England youth international has played in a number of different positions in his half-season with the Owls and has himself spoken of his determination to continue his voyage of discovery at S6.

Wednesday boss Darren Moore has detailed a number of times about the need for Mighten to make the transition from impact substitute to a player more capable of offering a sustained performance over 90 minutes.

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In the Highbury win he launched into a season-high number of defensive duels, loose ball duels, interceptions and ball recoveries.

“I thought he was great,” Moore said on Mighten’s Fleetwood effort. “I thought he could get at the full-back. He had a great chance to score and the keeper pulled off a great save.

“I thought his overall performance in terms of spotting danger, his quickness across the floor and close control was superb.

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“He's probably sacrificed himself a little bit in terms of getting forward but he was our out ball today because of how narrow Fleetwood played.

“If you look at Alex's career, he's always come off the subs bench but I've said to him you've got to start games.

“He's in a part of his career now where he's starting games instead of being an impact player like he was at Forest. That's a beautiful thing for him getting 90 minutes instead of being a substitute.”