Mike Dodds explains his surprise Sunderland goalkeeper selection decision for Sheffield Wednesday game

Mike Dodds said that Nathan Bishop deserved his chance to make his league debut for Sunderland as a reward for his professionalism over the course of the campaign.

Anthony Patterson’s long run of consecutive league starts, which ran to over one hundred ahead of Sheffield Wednesday’s visit, came to an end on the final day of the Championship season. Dodds said Patterson had been carrying a knock during the week but said the decision was more about Bishop’s professionalism.

The interim head coach said it was important for the club to take a closer look at Bishop ahead of any potential transfer interest in Patterson in future windows.

"Anthony Patterson was touch and go for the game anyway, he'd picked up a knock in the week,” Dodds said.

“As a staff we just made the decision over the last couple of days that Nathan Bishop [deserved to play] because he's an absolute model professional in the way he conducts himself. His behaviour, he comes in every single day and is one of the best trainers every time even though he knows he's probably not going to play because Patto has been so consistent.

"We've been having this conversation for a number of weeks in terms of whether we give Bishop an opportunity because we wanted to see him in a game,” Dodds added.

“I'm not saying that Anthony Patterson is going to leave but if he continues on the trajectory he's on then I'm sure that there's going to be a huge amount of interest in him. Like a lot of the players, with players like Chris Rigg there's been a lot of 'let's see them', Tommy Watson is another example today who has been training with us and we got on the pitch today. Bishop deserved to play because of how he has conducted himself, and there was also an element of him needing him to play so that we could see if he could potentially be a number one for this football club somewhere down the line."

The 2-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday was just Bishop’s second competitive appearance since joining from Manchester United last summer.