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Archived News from July 2008

STAGS SIGN ADIE MOSES AND MICHAEL BLACKWOOD
17th July 2008 14:43


Stags sign Adie Moses and Michael Blackwood.
11 July 2008
Full story at mansfieldtown.net here

NEW: audio interview with Michael Blackwood from mansfieldtown.net here

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Stags sign duo as McEwan rebuilds
BBC.co.uk, 11 July 2008
Mansfield Town manager Billy McEwan has continued his rebuilding work at Field Mill by signing two more players.

The Stags have taken former Barnsley and Lincoln defender Adie Moses and left-sided player Michael Blackwood, who was on loan at Oxford last season.

Moses, 33, has made more than 300 appearances in his career while 28-year-old Blackwood began his career as a trainee with Aston Villa.

New boss McEwan has now signed four players in his first week in charge.

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Stags sign 2 more players
CHAD.co.uk
MANSFIELD Town boss Billy McEwan announced his third and fourth signings of the week on Friday afternoon.
Former Barnsley defender Adie Moses (33) and ex-Aston Villa trainee Michael Blackwood (28), a left sided defender/midfielder have put pen to paper.

Following the acquisition of experienced striker Mark Stallard and midfielder Jon D'Laryea, there had been speculation that the next signings would be defenders.

Chad revealed earlier on Friday that Moses, who almost joined the Stags earlier this year, was one of a clutch of trialists at Field Mill this week.

Moses (33), like Stallard, was released by Lincoln at the end of last season, and has also played for Huddersfield and Crewe.

He is 6ft 3ins tall, has made more than 300 League appearances and was in the Barnsley defence when they gained promotion to the Premiership in the 1996-97 season.

McEwan told the club's official website mansfieldtown.net: "Adie is a very experienced professional. He is a leader with a great attitude and is somebody who I wanted to sign when I was manager of York."

Blackwood has also played for Wrexham, Telford, Lincoln and Kidderminster, from where he was released at the end of last season.

He is 5ft 10ins tall and has also been at Stevenage, Chester, Halesowen and Oxford.

McEwan said: "Michael has been training with us for a few days and I am very pleased he has signed as a number of other clubs were also chasing him.

"He has good pace and is versatile.

"Both of these boys want to play for Mansfield Town and that is important for me."

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Michael Blackwood profile from harriers-online

http://www.harriers-online.co.uk/squad/blackwood.shtml

Michael Blackwood began his career as a trainee at Aston Villa in August 1998, but by June 2000 he had left Villa Park without making an appearance. During his time at Aston Villa he went out on loan to the then Conference side Chester City where he made 9 appearances and notched 2 goals.

After leaving Villa, he signed for Wrexham where he made 50 appearances and scored 2 goals in his two years at the Welsh club.

He then joined Conference club Stevenage in September 2002 on a free transfer and made 21 appearances and scored 2 goals, before leaving to join Halesowen Town on another free transfer in March 2003. Following them he joined up with Telford United where he became a regular in their side, playing in 42 games until the demise of the club saw him looking for a new club to join.

After Telford he moved back into the Football League with Lincoln City but failed to make any impression at Sincil Bank, although this wasn't helped by a bad injury during his first few months there.

He signed for the Harriers on July 5th 2005 and soon earned a regular place in the team at either left back or to the left side of midfield.

Surprisingly he was sent out on loan to rivals Oxford Utd on the last day of the transfer window in January 2008 but after just seven games for them got injured. He was sent back to the Harriers and then released at the end of the season and eventually joined newly relegated Mansfield Town in mid July.

FACTFILE:
Born: Birmingham 30-09-1979 Height: 5ft 10ins Weight: 11st 7lbs Position: Forward

Club Date Fee Apps Goals
Aston Villa 01-08-98 : 29-06-00 Trainee No data No data
Chester City 03-09-99 : 03-11-99 Loan 9 2
Wrexham 29-06-00 : 14-09-02 Free 50 2
Stevenage 14-09-02 : 25-03-03 Free 21 2
Halesowen 25-03-03 : 01-08-03 Free No data No data
Telford Utd 01-08-03 : 13-07-04 Free 42 5
Lincoln City 13-07-04 : 31-05-05 Free 10 0
Harriers 05-07-05 : 28-04-08 Free 122 8
Oxford Utd 31-02-08 : 31-03-08 Loan 7 0
Mansfield 11-07-08 : Signed

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Adie Moses
profile from soccerbase
Height 6.01
Weight 12.08
Date of birth 04-05-1975
Place of birth Doncaster
Position Defender
Nationality England

All time playing career

Club From To Fee League FA Cup League cup Other
Lincoln 01-08-2006 01-06-2008 Free 42 (8) 1 3 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Crewe 07-07-2003 01-08-2006 Free 46 (11) 0 2 (0) 0 4 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Huddersfield 20-12-2000 07-07-2003 £ 225000 63 (6) 1 2 (1) 1 1 (0) 0 5 (0) 0
Barnsley 02-07-1993 20-12-2000 Junior 137 (14) 3 15 (0) 0 15 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Totals £ 225000 288 (39) 5 22 (1) 1 22 (0) 0 5 (0) 0
goals / game 0.01 0.04 0 0
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals

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from the forgotten imp website:

Meanwhile, Mansfield Town have signed two former Lincoln City players as Mansfield try to rebuild ahead of their debut season in the Conference. The two players in question are Michael Blackwood and Adie Moses.

Imps' fans might have trouble recalling Blackwood but he signed after he impressed as a trialist for Lincoln City FC in their 3-0 victory at neighbours Lincoln United in July 2004. Blackwood became a free agent following the unfortunate demise of Telford United FC, hence no fee was involved.

A left-sided utility player, he can play anywhere on the left, i.e. left-back, midfield or more usually as a striker. Lincoln succeeded in beating off competition from then newly relegated League One club Walsall, who had also given Blackwood a trial.

Blackwood began his career as a trainee at Aston Villa in August 1998 but left in June 2000 without making an appearance. During his time at Aston Villa, he made 9 appearances on loan at Chester City, scoring 2 goals. After leaving Villa, he signed for Wrexham where he made 50 appearances and scored 2 goals in his two-years at the Welsh club.

In September 2002 he joined Conference club Stevenage on a free transfer where he went on to make 21 appearances and scored 2 goals before leaving to join Halesowen Town for a brief two-month stint in March 2003. The summer of 2003 saw him sign for Conference club Telford United where he became a regular in their side by playing 42 matches during his one and only season at Telford. One of those appearances was as a late substitute in Telford's LDV Trophy first round tie at Lincoln, which City won 3-1. Overall, he scored 5 goals for Telford before events off the pitch forced him to look for a new club.

Blackwood became an instant first team regular at Lincoln until he sustained an injury during his sixth game for the club. The injury kept him sidelined for several months and upon his return, he was unable to reclaim his starting place. In May 2005, Lincoln and Blackwood agreed a severance deal and he joined Kidderminster in July 2005.

Moses is a more familiar figure having played at Lincoln City last season. He began his career as a trainee at Barnsley in July 1993. His stay at Barnsley incorporated their dramatic rise to the Premiership, where they became everyone's second team. However, they would not survive in the Premiership and in fact, came close to liquidation as they further slipped through the Championship to League One.

Moses left Barnsley in December 2000 in a £225,000 transfer to Huddersfield Town. Overall, he made 181 appearances for Barnsley and scored three goals.

It was while he was at Huddersfield that injuries began to interrupt his career. He made 78 appearances for Huddersfield between December 2000 to July 2003 before leaving Huddersfield on a free transfer. During his time at Huddersfield, he worked alongside both Lincoln City's Director of Football John Deehan, who was then a coach at Huddersfield, and former Imps' defender Nat Brown.

Crewe Alexandra gave Moses the opportunity to play for them in July 2003. Unfortunately, injuries once again curtailed his career and hence this is the reason why he has played just 63 league and cup matches during the three years before signing for Lincoln. Moses was released by Crewe at the end of the 2005/06 season.

Providing that Moses' injury-hit past is behind him, then he should have proved a good signing for Lincoln City FC as he also played twice for the England Under-21 team during his days at Barnsley.

Moses began his Lincoln City career well by scoring a debut goal. However, towards the latter part of the season, he was dropped and faced a battle to win back his place for the 2007/08 season. He did succeed but quickly fell out of favour with new manager Peter Jackson, and was promptly released in June 2008 when his contract expired.

Moses opted to continue playing despite undertaking a journalism course, and opted to join Conference club Mansfield Town in July 2008.

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New Stag Blackwood impressed with Field Mill
CHAD.co.uk, 14Jul2008
THE fourth player to join the new look Stags has spoken for the first time of his move to Mansfield Town.
Michael Blackwood signed on Friday evening, together with Adie Moses, as new boss Billy McEwan added defenders too his fledgling squad.

The player, who can play either left midfield or left back, said he was impressed with the stadium and manager McEwan, adding: "I am getting to know my teammates, they look like a good bunch of lads.

Blackwood (28), who started his career as a trainee at Aston Villa, has also played for Wrexham, Telford, Lincoln and Kidderminster, from where he was released at the end of last season.

He is 5ft 10ins tall and has also been at Stevenage, Chester, Halesowen and Oxford.

Blackwood, said of his experience in non league football: "The pace of the game is high . . . strength is a big factor. And you need to be scoring goals."

The versatile player added in his interview with the club's official website mansfieldtown.net: "I will play anywhere, just give me the ball!"

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Clear-out 'will help Stags in long run'
Evening Post, 17/07/2008
Michael Blackwood is confident the clear-out at Mansfield this summer will benefit the club in the long run.

http://www.thisismansfieldtown.co.uk/news/Clear-out--will-help45385116.aspx

Most Stags fans were sad to see the likes of Michael Boulding, Alex John-Baptiste, Johnny Mullins, Jake Buxton and Stephen Dawson leave.

But new signing Blackwood, who can operate at left-back and on the left sided of midfield, feels it may not be a bad thing.

Playing for Kidderminster in the Conference, the 28-year-old has seen at first hand that clubs relegated from the Football League can often struggle if they retain the same playing staffs.

"I have been in a similar situation to this, where the whole squad is new, when I was at Telford," said Blackwood.

"With all the players fresh we did well, getting a long way in the FA Cup and also doing pretty well in the league until the club was forced into liquidation.

"A lot of clubs who have been relegated out of the League take a year or two to adjust to life in the Conference by keeping the same players.

"But with new faces around, you have no 'hangover' from last season. Everyone is hungry and wanting to do something."

Blackwood says it was the drive of new boss Billy McEwan (pictured) that persuaded him to move to Field Mill. "I liked what he had to say and his ideas," he added.

 

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