Archived News from May 2017
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STAGS SIGN KEEPER CONRAD LOGAN
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Stags sign sought-after shot-stopper
mansfieldtown.net, 10th May 2017 Mansfield Town are delighted to announce their first signing of the summer with the impressive acquisition of goalkeeper Conrad Logan. The Stags have won the race to sign the ex-Rochdale goalkeeper, and beat a host of clubs in League One and two clubs in the Scottish Premier League. The management team at One Call Stadium have worked hard to secure the services of the former Leicester City player, who put pen to paper in north Nottinghamshire this afternoon. During a 10-year spell with the Foxes after moving to England, the Irishman enjoyed a loan stint with then-League Two club Stockport County, amongst others, where he won promotion via the play-offs. County beat local rivals, and Logan's future club, Rochdale 3-2 at Wembley as the shot-stopper capped off a fine season in his first loan spell with the North West club. Read more at http://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/article/2016-17/stags-sign-sought-after-shot-stopper-3712836.aspx#9KJB5VCHIKSXGzVc.99 After leaving Leicester in 2015, the ‘keeper made the switch to Hibernian for the last two months of the 2015/16 season and quickly wrote himself into the Scottish club’s folklore. Logan’s debut for the Edinburgh-based side was the semi-final of the Scottish Cup against Dundee United. The match finished 0-0 after extra time and Hibs progressed to the final after a 4-2 penalty shoot-out win - which included a string of brilliant stops and two penalty saves by the new Stags’ goalkeeper. The penalty shoot-out heroics followed a stellar performance over 120 minutes at Hampden Park, during which he made a number of excellent saves to keep the game goalless. Following his incredible debut, Logan kept his place for the rest of the season and played in Hibs’ 3-2 win over Rangers in the final of the Scottish Cup, the Hibees’ first victory of the competition in 114 years. The Irishman left Hibs at the end of the season and joined League One side Rochdale, where he quickly became their number one. He became a stalwart of a strong Dale side who were chasing a spot in the League One play-offs throughout the campaign. Logan kept 10 clean sheets in 30 appearances for the Greater Manchester side last season, helping them to a ninth-place finish. Speaking exclusively to http://www.mansfieldtown.net, Logan said: “I’m excited at the prospect of playing here. It’s a good club with massive ambitions and I’m raring to get going. "It’s a drop in division [but] hopefully it’s only for a year because this is a club that’s striving for promotion. Once I spoke to the manager and weighed things up, the decision was quite easy and I’m happy that I’ve made the move." After a hectic few days for manager Steve Evans, http://www.mansfieldtown.net briefly caught up with the Stags’ gaffer before he left One Call Stadium to meet an intended player target. “There is no doubt, for me, that Conrad Logan has played a major part, along with, it has to be said, a number of top class Rochdale players in a season that allowed them to go to the last day in their pursuit of the play-offs,” said Steve. “I watched Rochdale on at least three occasions myself - and Paul Raynor on two separate occasions - since the turn of the year and it’s fair to say that Conrad Logan has been top class. “He will come in to the football club determined to help us enjoy a good season. He will work hard and the one thing I know is I will get someone who’s got a consistent track record of being able to keep the ball out of the net - that’s his job.” The deal will commence from 01 July and is subject to EFL ratification. Stags PlayerHD subscribers can view Conrad Logan's first interview in full. ------------------ Club's high ambition seals deal for Logan mansfieldtown.net, 10th May 2017 Stags’ first signing of the summer Conrad Logan has highlighted the club’s ambition as one of the major factors for him putting pen-to-paper at One Call Stadium. The 31-year-old goalkeeper became manager Steve Evans’ first signing of the summer by penning a deal at the club earlier today. And the former Leicester City shot-stopper has been impressed with the ambition of everyone associated with the Stags in outlining their aims for next season. “I’m excited at the prospect of playing here. It’s a good club with massive ambitions and I’m raring to get going," Logan said. Read more at http://www.mansfieldtown.net/news/article/2016-17/clubs-high-ambition-seals-deal-for-logan-3712879.aspx#ySGOcYXDHWRT31uW.99 “It’s a drop in division. Hopefully it’s only for a year because this is a club that’s striving for promotion. Once I spoke to the manager (Steve Evans) and weighed things up, the decision was quite easy and I’m happy that I’ve made the move. “I’ve seen the progress of the club since the manager’s come in and I don’t live that far away, which is obviously a factor, but I also get to see a lot of Mansfield in the news and the ambition of the club, the chairman (John Radford) and people around [the club]. “A combination of those things really tipped it (Logan’s decision) towards Mansfield.” The former Rochdale man says he is looking forward to a promotion push next season after the club publicly stated their ambition for the 2017/18 campaign. “This game’s all about winning really and if the club’s ambitious and wants to strive towards, there’s no point coming to a club that says ‘we’re looking to try and stay in this league’ or ‘we’re looking for mid-table and sneak in the play-offs’. “Why not set your ambition out as high as you can and that’s what they’ve done. “They’ve come out publicly and said that, so there’s not hiding from the fact of what the plan is for next year and as players, you’ve got to go out and embrace it and look forward to the task.” After playing professionally for more than 10 years, Logan believes he is a leader and likes to see himself as someone his team-mates can rely on. “At any level, I think you’ve got to be reliable and safe and be someone that players can rely on. I would like to think I can do that. “I would like to think I’m a leader. Being a goalkeeper, you have to lead. You lead from the back and throughout the team and I like to think I can be a presence in goal which people can rely on. “I love winning and I’m very, very passionate when I play and hopefully the Mansfield fans will see that. “I like to think I’m a winner and someone who wants to do well and is passionate about it.” Finally, the former League Two promotion-winner says the quick nature of his signing shows that manager Steve Evans has already identified his targets for next season as he aims to build a squad capable of challenging at the top of the division. “It’s a club that is very, very ambitious and making the right noises, so for them to bring me in so quickly after the season shows that the manager has his stall set out for next season and has identified players and wants to get his business done as quick as he can. “For me personally, I’m delighted to get it done and get it over the line and I’m looking forward to the start of the season.” Supporters can login to Stags PlayerHD to view Conrad Logan’s exclusive first interview. --------------------------- Conrad Logan expected to become a Mansfield Town cult hero chad.co.uk, by JOHN LOMAS, (from Paul Raynor press conference 12 May 2017) New Mansfield Town goalkeeper Conrad Logan is expected to become a real cult hero with the fans. The Scot has his own fan club, some of who have tattoos of him, and Stags assistant manager Paul Raynor said: “He’s a good lad. “We’ve know him a long time since he came to us at Boston on loan from Leicester as a young boy. He did exceptionally well with us, went back to Leicester and straight into their first team. Read more at: http://www.chad.co.uk/sport/football/mansfield-town/conrad-logan-expected-to-become-a-mansfield-town-cult-hero-1-8542284 “He has been around a bit since then. He is a good, experienced goalkeeper and a fantastic character - a real fans’ favourite wherever he goes. “He is a winner. I watched a couple of his games towards the end of the season for Rochdale. He is a passionate guy who gets his defence organised.” --------------------- Logan signs for Stags RochdaleAFC.com, unofficial Rochdale Fan site, Wednesday 10th May 2017 Out of contract goalkeeper Conrad Logan has dropped down a division and signed for Mansfield Town. He joins the Stags on a free transfer following the expiry of his six month contract at Dale. He was offered a new deal by Keith Hill but has opted for the move to Field Mill rather than extend his deal at Dale. He told the official Mansfield website: It’s a drop in division hopefully it’s only for a year because this is a club that’s striving for promotion. Once I spoke to the manager and weighed things up, the decision was quite easy and I’m happy that I’ve made the move." He returned to the club last Summer after a fantastic loan spell a couple of years ago that came to an end due to injury and did enough to warrant a deal until January which was then extended until the end of the season. He lost his place in February but his return to the side coincided with an improvement in the form of the first team. See more at: http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/rochdale/news/45649/#sthash.7uuwbHTR.ndZjs24a.dpuf In moving to Mansfield, it will be a move closer to his Leicester home where he has recently opened a goalkeeping academy. ---------------------------- EARLIER STORY: Hibs Scottish Cup hero Conrad Logan admits 'fat goalie' jibes were nothing after having to learn to walk again Logan wrote his name into Hibs history with his penalty saving heroics on the road to May's final victory over Rangers - now he lifts the lid on the agony which came before the glory. dailyrecord.co.uk, BY EUAN MCLEAN, 21 JAN 2017 They called him the Roly-Poly Goalie but these days Conrad Logan prefers to go by the title of Hibs Legend. And well earned it is, too. Not just because the Irishman was a crucial part of the Hibees side that ended the club’s 114-year wait to lift the Scottish Cup - the trophy they will seek to defend when they get back on the road to Hampden today against Bonnyrigg Rose. Logan deserves the plaudits even more so for the physical and emotional strain, and guts to take a gamble on himself that got him to Hibs in the first place. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hibs-scottish-cup-hero-conrad-9661981 People may have had their fun sniggering at the portly, little-known keeper who had just stolen the show on his debut in the semi-final clash with Dundee United in April. Forget the fact he’d just saved United’s first two efforts in a nail-biting penalty shoot-out. What about that belly? Yet amid the wisecracks and the “cult hero” status suddenly bestowed upon the 30-year-old few people stopped to consider the circumstances behind those extra pounds. And with it, the reason why Logan couldn’t care less about the jokes coming his way - he was simply too happy and grateful just to be playing football again. From the moment his Achilles tendon snapped in a game for Rochdale against Notts County just before Christmas 2014, Logan had been on a much more arduous road than the one that leads to Hampden. In the 16 months that followed, his contract with parent club Leicester City expired and repeated setbacks left him wondering if he would ever get fit enough to find another club. By March 2016 one found him, as Hibs boss Alan Stubbs needed a stopgap to cover for suspended Mark Oxley in that fateful semi-final. Both men knew they were taking a gamble - Stubbs by recruiting an unfit, rusty keeper, Logan knowing a disaster between the sticks would probably wreck his career. No wonder then that when Logan’s star turn saw him retain his place for the final victory against Rangers, the emotions of all he’d been through poured out in uncontrollable thick wells. Tears to go with the blood and sweat given in the previous year-and-a-half of hell. Today, while his former team-mates begin the defence of their Cup - ironically at Tynecastle - Logan will be lining up for Rochdale against Oxford United, having returned to his former club in the summer. But he admits that Hibs won’t be far from his mind today. He said: “Look, I’ve never been the skinniest but there’s no doubt I wasn’t fully fit at the time - but that makes it all the more satisfying. “I had the balls to go to Hibs and take a chance because it could have backfired and I’d have been left with no club and few prospects. “So the comments didn’t annoy me because I’d done my job. I’d been out for 16 months and been told by physios it would be the next season before I’d be back playing. “I knew it was a chance as massive as it was a risk so I went for it. “That day you could have put the best looking athlete in goal and he might not have done a better job. “People always pick up on things that make you stand out from the crowd so after the semi-final they had a lot of fun with it. “But never judge a book by its cover. The important thing was what I did on the pitch and after what I’d come back from I didn’t care what anyone else said. An Achilles tendon is one of the longest injuries to come back from. It snapped - a complete rupture. “There’s no set timeline, unlike a cruciate where you go through a protocol week by week. “Weeks and months had gone by and I still couldn’t move and had no feeling in my foot. “I had to learn to walk again really. “On top of that there was loads of complications and setbacks caused by scar tissue. “That summer of 2015 my contract ended at Leicester so for almost a year I was without a club and at times you start to wonder if it’s ever going to get better. If I’ll ever play again. “Even just a month before I joined Hibs, I would never have thought I’d be back training that season - then three months later I’m lifting the Cup.” Many a grown man cried that day when Hibs ended that long wait for glory with a thrilling 3-2 win over Gers, but for Logan the emotions were all consuming. He said: “I fell to my knees and started crying. I’ve hardly cried in my life but it was just overwhelming emotion from everything I’d been through. Everything just let out. “Right enough, it didn’t take long to get off those knees when I realised fans were streaming on to the pitch. It’s probably the quickest I’ve moved!” Hibs had made history and the scale of their achievement wasn’t lost on a very special group of former team-mates who had already carved their own names in the annuls of football’s most remarkable triumphs. Many of the Leicester City side crowned Premier League champions just a few weeks before came through the ranks with Logan, and supported him through his injury woes as he continued to report to their training ground for treatment even after his contract expired. Logan said: “I was in the changing room with these guys while they were sitting top of the Premier League. “A lot of those boys had been team-mates for a long time and they were all good taking interest in me. “A lot of them got on the phone to congratulate me and say how glad they were to see me back again. “People like a fairytale story. “I live in Leicester and even when I’m walking the streets I still get people stopping me to say congratulations from time to time.” But it’s in the streets of Edinburgh where Logan will always be made most welcome as one of the heroes who ended the hoodoo. There’s even a Hibs supporters club named in his honour and their commitment will see 30 members head for Rochdale next month to support them against Bristol City. He said: “I keep hearing I’ll never have to buy another drink in Edinburgh but until I come up to test that theory I’ll never be sure. “Now with the Scottish Cup starting again, Hibs will definitely be in my thoughts - and I don’t see any reason why they can’t win it again. “You wait 114 years and two come along at once.” ------------------ |
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