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.
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. 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. 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. He remained at Stoke until the 1995–96 season which saw him playing in every match that season. He left Stoke in July 1996 for Sheffield United after making 324 appearances for Stoke scoring 13 goals.
As at Stoke, Sandford became popular with Blades fans, making 142 league starts for the Bramall Lane outfit. 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. Released from his contract at the end of the 2001–02 season he had trials at Bournemouth and Mansfield Town. 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.
Career statistics Source:
+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeagueFA CupLeague CupOtherTotalDivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsPortsmouth 1985–86Second Division701041101311986–87Second Division00000000001987–88First Division2211020002511988–89Second Division3102020203701989–90Second Division130003000160Total7214011130902Stoke City 1989–90Second Division2321000002421990–91Third Division3223130204031991–92Third Division38020301035331992–93Second Division4222140405231993–94First Division4214030505411994–95First Division3512030604611995–96First Division460203040550Total258816219031332413Sheffield United 1996–97First Division3021030203621997–98First Division1506100202311998–99First Division3505040—4401999–2000First Division4312030—4812000–01First Division2211030—2612001–02First Division602000—80Total1514171130401855Reading (loan)1997–98First Division500000—50Stockport County (loan)2001–02First Division700000—70Woking2002–03Football Conference120000000120Career total5051337343138362320
Honours Stoke City Football League Second Division: 1992–93 Associate Members' Cup: 1991–92
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