Lee Sandford
Personal information
Full name Lee Robert Sandford[1]
Date of birth (1968-04-22) 22 April 1968[1]
Place of birth Lambeth, England[1]
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Position(s) Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1989 Portsmouth 72 (1)
1989–1996 Stoke City 258 (8)
1996–2002 Sheffield United 151 (4)
1997 → Reading (loan) 5 (0)
2001 → Stockport County (loan) 7 (0)
2002–2003 Woking 12 (0)
Total 505 (13)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lee Robert Sandford (born 22 April 1968) is an English former footballer who made more than 480 first-team appearances as a defender. He played in the Football League for Portsmouth, Stoke City, Sheffield United, Reading and Stockport County.[1]

Career

Sandford was born in Lambeth but moved to Basingstoke where he trialed for the local team Basingstoke Town. He was spotted by scouts at Portsmouth and signed on as a professional in December 1985. His coach was Alan Ball and once Ball had replaced Bobby Campbell as manager he promoted Sandford to the first team. He made 90 appearances for Pompey in five seasons before new manager John Gregory made it clear he did not want him in the first team. So Sandford received an offer from Stoke City where Ball had gone to and he joined them for a fee of £140,000.

He instantly became a regular at the Victoria Ground but was unable to prevent Stoke suffering relegation in 1989–90.[1] Ball was feeling the wrath of the Stoke support as did most of his signings and Ball was sacked in January 1991 as Stoke went on to finish in their lowest ever position in 1990–91. New manager Lou Macari's fitness regime's benefited Sandford greatly and he became a vital member of the team at Stoke.[1] From left-back he would provide great service for the pacey Mark Stein to run on to and provided him with the winning goal in the 1992 Football League Trophy final. He played in 52 matches in 1992–93 as Stoke won the Second Division title.[1] He remained at Stoke until the 1995–96 season which saw him playing in every match that season.[1] He left Stoke in July 1996 for Sheffield United after making 324 appearances for Stoke scoring 13 goals.[1]

As at Stoke, Sandford became popular with Blades fans, making 142 league starts for the Bramall Lane outfit.[2] He went on loan on two occasions while he was at United; firstly in 1997 Sandford played five matches for Reading and in 2001 he played seven matches for Stockport County.[3] Released from his contract at the end of the 2001–02 season he had trials at Bournemouth[4] and Mansfield Town.[5] Sandford finished his career at non-league Woking before retiring.

Personal life

After retiring from football, Sandford set up his own stock trading coaching business. In 2014, he released his autobiography titled: Goals To Gold.[6]

Career statistics

Source:[7]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Portsmouth 1985–86 Second Division 7010411[lower-alpha 1]0131
1986–87 Second Division 0000000000
1987–88 First Division 221102000251
1988–89 Second Division 31020202[lower-alpha 1]0370
1989–90 Second Division 130003000160
Total 7214011130902
Stoke City 1989–90 Second Division 232100000242
1990–91 Third Division 32231302[lower-alpha 2]0403
1991–92 Third Division 380203010[lower-alpha 3]3533
1992–93 Second Division 42221404[lower-alpha 2]0523
1993–94 First Division 42140305[lower-alpha 4]0541
1994–95 First Division 35120306[lower-alpha 4]0461
1995–96 First Division 46020304[lower-alpha 5]0550
Total 258816219031332413
Sheffield United 1996–97 First Division 30210302[lower-alpha 6]0362
1997–98 First Division 15061002[lower-alpha 6]0231
1998–99 First Division 3505040—440
1999–2000 First Division 4312030—481
2000–01 First Division 2211030—261
2001–02 First Division 602000—80
Total 1514171130401855
Reading (loan) 1997–98 First Division 500000—50
Stockport County (loan) 2001–02 First Division 700000—70
Woking 2002–03 Football Conference 120000000120
Career total 5051337343138362320
  1. 1 2 Appearances in Full Members' Cup
  2. 1 2 Appearances in Football League Trophy
  3. ↑ Eight Appearances and three goals in Football League Trophy and two appearances in Third Division play-offs
  4. 1 2 Appearances in the Anglo-Italian Cup
  5. ↑ Two Appearances in the Anglo-Italian Cup and two appearances in First Division play-offs
  6. 1 2 Appearances in First Division play-offs

Honours

Stoke City

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Stoke City 101 Golden Greats. Desert Islands Books. 2002. ISBN 1-874287-55-4.
  2. ↑ Lowe, Simon (6 May 2008). "The Potters tale". Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  3. ↑ "Sheffield United FC 1996–2002". sporting-heroes.net. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  4. ↑ "Phillips predicts bright future". BBC Sport. 1 August 2002. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  5. ↑ "Christie set for Stags". BBC Sport. 7 August 2002. Retrieved 27 June 2009.
  6. ↑ "Lee Sandford takes stock and shares his life in autobiography". Stoke Sentinel. 31 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 June 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Lee Sandford at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
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