Manchester United reserve goalkeeper Lee Grant says his own friendly rivalry with Anthony Martial has helped drive the Frenchman on to new heights for the Old Trafford club this season.
Martial ended United's 2019/20 campaign with 23 goals in all competitions, confirming him as the club's top scorer ahead of Marcus Rashford and marking this as his best scoring season for the club.
The forward's resurgence under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has seen him establish himself as United's first-choice central attacker, and veteran stopper Grant says that he is always driving Martial on in training.
“We have a nice little battle actually,” he told the United website.
“I'm always on at him in training, always digging at him in training to try to do better.
"If Anthony shoots and I save it, I go: '1-0, Anto'. Then he'll get this glint in his eye and the next one, it won't matter if the gaffer says don't worry about the shot in the end, he'll come through and want to shoot in a one-on-one.
“He won't even say anything, he'll just do that [make symbol for 1-1], and then the next one, and we'll do that all day. So a lovely little rivalry goes on between us."
Grant adds that the battle has become so intense that he suspects Martial enjoys scoring past him more than he does in the Premier League.
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“You might have caught it with the goal he scored at home against Bournemouth," he continued.
"He cuts inside and hits an unbelievable strike, then looks up in the stands at me, like that.
"I'm stood up giving applause, it's the type of thing to do, but he'd have loved to score that goal against me, probably more than he would do against Bournemouth!”
