Lee Sandford
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Lee Robert Sandford | ||
| Date of birth | 22 April 1968 | ||
| Place of birth | Lambeth, England | ||
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||
| Playing position | 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 | → (loan) | 7 | (0) |
| 2002–2003 | Woking | 12 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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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 .
Sandford was born in Lambeth but moved to Basingstoke where he trailed 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 felling 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.
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