By Sam Preston

Nathan Bishop makes his first appearance on loan at Mansfield

Manchester United have a host of goalkeepers vying for the number one spot at the club.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still hasn’t made a concrete decision between Dean Henderson and David de Gea. Now Tom Heaton is here to challenge them.

Lee Grant is vastly experienced and has played a part in pre-season, which meant it made sense for 21-year-old Nathan Bishop to leave on loan.

He’s joined Mansfield Town in League 2 and made his first appearance for them in a pre-season friendly against Coventry last night.

Nigel Clough’s side won 1-0 in the first game in front of fans at the One Call Stadium since February 2020.

Clough praised Bishop in an interview with club media after the game, saying: “We didn’t learn an awful lot about Nathan Bishop, because he didn’t have much to do!

“But very, very pleased with his concentration, his positioning, his distribution – all those sorts of things.

“Absolutely thrilled to have him in the team at last and defensively I thought we looked pretty solid – very pleased.

Bishop also posted a message after the game about how good it felt to make his first appearance in front of the Stags fans.

Of course he’ll have learned a lot from training with such outstanding goalkeepers at United, but there’s no substitute for playing regularly.

Henderson is a perfect example. He went away from United and had spells at Stockport, Grimsby and Shrewsbury before Sheffield United.

That experience helped him iron out his weaknesses and toughened him up in a way that only playing games that matter week in, week out can.

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Sam Preston

Sam Preston is an NCTJ gold standard news and sports journalist who studied with the Press Association. He also has a 2:1 law with French law degree from the University of Birmingham, which included a year studying at Bordeaux Montaigne University. He is an FA Level 1 football coach who appeared on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show in 2018 and has also written digital football content and match-day programme pieces for Colchester United, Mansfield Town and Stockport County.