Bury have high hopes for on-loan PNE keeper Mathew Hudson

Mathew Hudson during his Bury debut against Rangers at Ibrox last Friday

His bow in PNE’s first team came aged 17 at Elland Road in front of a 22,600 crowd.

At the end of last week, the teenager joined Bury on loan until January.

Hudson was pitched straight into the Shakers side on the night he signed and it was no low-profile game.

He kept goal against Rangers at Ibrox, a match which attracted an attendance of more than 41,000.

The headline act that night was Steven Gerrard, overseeing his first match in charge of the Glasgow club.

Hudson picked the ball out of his net six times as Bury were beaten 6-0.

Scoreline-wise it was not the start he wanted but this season will be very much a learning curve for him.

The Southport lad, who turns 20 at the end of the month, signed a new two-year contract with PNE last month.

Straight away the attention turned to getting Hudson out on loan to further his career.

Highly rated at Deepdale, he needs a run of matches to develop.

North End have loaned him to Bury until the new year in the hope he plays regularly in League Two.

Hudson will be under the watch of ex-Burnley keeper Brian Jensen, who is the Shakers’ goalkeeping coach.

Jensen said: “Preston were looking to get him out to play ‘men’s football’ which we can provide.

“Mathew is a tall, agile keeper who has been very unfortunate not to play more games for Preston.”

Hudson’s exit on loan will not leave PNE short of keeper cover.

Knowing he would be going out at some stage, they signed ex-Ipswich keeper Michael Crowe on a free transfer.

He will act as cover for Declan Rudd and Chris Maxwell.

While Hudson’s exit is very much a temporary one, PNE are continuing their efforts to ease a few others out of the Deepdale exit door.

Eoin Doyle, Ben Pringle, Andy Boyle, Marnick Vermijl and Kevin O’Connor are the players they would like to find new homes for.

None of them featured in the squad at Bamber Bridge last Saturday, a game in which Alex Neil used 22 players and had four youngsters on the bench as cover.

The five are continuing to train with Neil’s squad and have all been given a squad number.