Lee Sandford

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. 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.

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Honours Stoke City Football League Second Division champions: 1992–93 Football League Trophy winner: 1992