Foster, Sandwith and Smith all sign for Stags

Steve Foster, Kevin Sandwith and Chris Smith have all signed 1 year deals at Field Mill this week. Foster has returned to the club that he has supported since he was a young boy and is probably set to be the new captain. Whilst all these three are good signings we were dealt a blow midweek when Jon Shaw had his contract terminated by mutual consent because he wanted to be closer to his wife and child. He has since joined Gateshead.

The first signing of the week was Chris Smith from Tamworth. He was the captain and has had very good reviews from the majority of the Tamworth fans. The Tamworth assistant had this to say about him.

“Chris has been an outstanding skipper and a great player in the two years he has been here. It’s a massive blow to us, I’m not going to deny that” Darron Gee – This is Tamworth

Smith is a centre back and helped Tamworth to win promotion to the BSP 2 years ago and also played a vital role in them stopping up this year. He is 28 so he will bring a fair share of experience to our back line. With him being the captain at Tamworth I think it was fair to say some of us were thinking will DH make him the captain? Obviously now with Foster signing it looks like he won’t be but it shows he also has leadership abilities which will be key if we want promotion.

All in all I am happy with this signing. With no disrespect to Smith himself I doubt he will be on as much money as what Luke Foster was on and if the Tamworth fans are anything to go by then we have found ourselves a cracking centre half here. For what it’s worth he also came across as a really nice guy in the interview which can be found here.

The next news to break this week at Field Mill was that Jon Shaw would be leaving the club by mutual consent because he wanted to play closer to his wife and young child.

“I have enjoyed my time at the Stags and wish them all the best for the future. They are a club destined for the Football League” Jon Shaw – Mansfield Town.net

It wasn’t the best 0f news but you can hardly keep a player at the club against his will. Shaw was a good enough player for us. He wasn’t a real quality player but he worked hard and he had a footballing brain and linked up well.

Unfortunately his spell here wasn’t the best for him. He got a few injuries and when he did play he was stuck out of the right of a three where he was quite ineffective. I would’ve liked to keep him for next season but it obviously wasn’t to be! I’ll keep my eye on him next season because I have a sneaky feeling he will score 15+ goals if he is played down the middle. He has now signed for Gateshead who are building a good team. Clare and Shaw are leading the line which is quite a strike force if they stay injury free!

Probably the best news of the week followed. Steve Foster returned to the club he left 17 years ago. Foster grew up supporting The Stags and came through the youth system but left after only making 5 appearances back in 1993.

“Steve has a wealth of experience and will bring a great determination and knowledge to our defence.  His leadership qualities will shine through.” David Holdsworth – Mansfieldtown.net

Foster is now 35 but he will be a great signing for us and looks a dead cert to be our new captain. He won’t be the quickest player but his reading of the game and organisation skills will be key to us next season. He also has a load of experience and will help Scott Garner develop as a player too. Foster has been linked with us since the season ended and everybody is pleased to see us pull off this signing. It will be great to have a Stags fan on the pitch to help us push towards promotion next season. You can see the Foster interview here.

We now have 4 centre backs (Foster, Smith, Garner and Naylor), so we have 4 good players which will each push each other to get in the team. I may have criticized DH in the last few weeks, but along with Marriott this is probably the best signing DH has pulled off. Well done!

The last signing of the week was Kevin Sandwith from Oxford United. Sandwith is an experienced left back and has had brilliant reviews from the Oxford fans. Left back has been a major weak spot for us in the last 2 seasons and it looks like we have finally sorted that out!

“Along with Chris Smith, Kevin shows the attributes of reliability and durability.  He brings great knowledge to our back four. “He is a focused and professional individual.” David Holdsworth – Mansfieldtown.net

Sandwith is 32 and has a wealth of experience having played in the Football League and the Blue Square Premier. He is just the type of player we needed. He is not the fastest of players but he is a footballing type of player, who likes to keep the ball on the ground and looks for a pass rather than lumping it forward. He is also good at set pieces and is supposed to have a brilliant cross on him! Something our big strikers will love to hear. Watching his interview he is another who comes across as a nice guy and seems to know what he wants!

Sandwith will probably be our last signing for the defence now. We have a good back line and good competition for places too. We could maybe do with a right back to cover for Gary Silk but he rarely gets injured so I can’t see it being too much of a problem.

I’d like to see two more players sign for us. Another goal scorer to play up top and a ‘footballing’ type of centre mid to play alongside Nix and maybe a winger if we can stretch that much. If one or two would have to leave then I wouldn’t mind seeing Perry and Istead go out the door who don’t really bring much to the squad. There haven’t been any new rumours doing the rounds this week and I can’t see DH bringing in anybody in for a while now because everybody tends to go on holiday at this time of the year. Still, we head into the season quite optimistic now after these recent signings.