Moss signs for the Echo

7:00am Tuesday 6th January 2009

Comments (0)   Have your say »

FORMER Cherries favourite Neil Moss is coming out of retirement – especially for the Daily Echo and its readers.

The Dorset club’s goalkeeping legend will find out what life is like in the press box when he becomes a guest blogger for Cherries’ match against Bradford City at Dean Court on Saturday.

We run live web blogs at Cherries matches every weekend and Moss is the first ex-player to step into the hotseat, allowing readers the opportunity to interact with the homegrown star.

The popular 33-year-old has been concentrating on his coaching business (betweenthesticks.co.uk) since being forced to retire in the summer because of a persistent wrist injury.

But he has also kept abreast of events at Dean Court and is the ideal man to bring our readers incisive, informative and straight-talking opinions.

Now he is no longer employed by the League Two club, Moss has promised to give “brutal, honest opinions” as the action unfolds.

Moss is hoping caretaker boss Eddie Howe can lead a revival as the team aim to keep hold of Football League status.

He believes his former team-mate will get the everybody pulling in the right direction.

“I’ve known Eddie since he was in the youth team and I was a young professional,” Moss told the Echo.

“I’m delighted he’s been given the job. He’s come on great guns as a coach since I was there.

“Everyone will be right behind him because he demands that sort of respect.”

Moss and Howe both came through the Dean Court youth ranks and the Barton-on-Sea-born keeper thinks rookie players will be given their chance under the new regime.

He said: “One thing Eddie will do is play young guys.

“Hopefully he’ll play youngsters and he knows how hard everyone works in the centre of excellence.”

Moss added: “Things didn’t start well for Kevin Bond and it seemed to get worse in the past few months.

“They’re almost rock bottom and were knocked out of the FA Cup, probably by the lowest opposition ever. The only way is up.”

To have your say on the Cherries-Bradford match and ask Neil about his thoughts on the game or other footballing topics, log on to bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport from 2.30pm on Saturday.