Mansfield Town have signed Goalkeeper Scott Flinders who for the last five seasons has been at Cheltenham Town.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old Rotherham born shot stopper made his senior debut with Barnsley back in 2005 and has since racked up over 500 league appearances with spells at Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion, Hartlepool United, York City and Macclesfield Town amongst others.<\/p>\n
Flinders becomes the Stags first summer signing and will provide competition in between the sticks following the exit of Marek Stech, and the return from his successful loan spell of Nathan Bishop back to Manchester United.<\/p>\n
On signing Flinders, Manager Nigel Clough stated \u201cHe played 18 games for Cheltenham last season in League One so hasn\u2019t come here to just sit around.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a very good goalkeeper over the years and has come here to compete for the first choice goalkeeping spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, the player himself told Stags TV “The Manager” was a big reason in him joining, saying “When we spoke I knew straight away, coming to the training ground, and when I’ve played here before it’s always been a really hard game, so the main reason is the Manager and where the club is at the minute, falling short at the final hurdle (in the playoffs) but the foundations are there to really have a good season next year”.<\/p>\n
6ft4in Flinders is the only goalkeeper at the club with league experience with Clough set to sign another to provide the experienced Yorkshireman some stiff contest but the Stags do have youngsters Louie Turner and Owen Mason in reserve, the latter of the two having recently made his Republic of Ireland international debut for the under 19\u2019s.<\/p>\n