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Sam Stockley

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Sam Stockley
Personal information
Full name Samuel Joshua Stockley
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
1994–1996 Southampton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–2001 Barnet 182 (2)
2001–2002 Oxford United 41 (0)
2002 → Colchester United (loan) 10 (1)
2002–2006 Colchester United 130 (2)
2006 → Blackpool (loan) 7 (0)
2006–2008 Wycombe Wanderers 56 (1)
2008–2009 Port Vale 31 (0)
Total 457 (6)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Samuel Joshua "Sam" Stockley (born 5 September 1977 in Tiverton, Devon) is an English former football defender.

A youth player at Southampton, he made his name at Barnet in the late 1990s. A short time at Oxford United was followed with a four year spell with Colchester United. He then spent two seasons with Wycombe Wanderers, before signing with Port Vale in May 2008. He announced his retirement as a player in November 2009.

A veteran of the third and fourth tiers, he has almost always been in demand with all five of his permanent clubs, making 457 appearances in the Football League. Almost fifty cup games takes him to 533 competitive appearances. He made a total of 499 starts.

Playing career

Stockley began his career as a trainee at Southampton but was unable to break into the first team. He moved to Barnet during the 1996–97 season and went on to make over 200 appearances for the club before moving to Oxford United for a fee of £150,000 in July 2001.[1] Unable to settle at Oxford, he was loaned out to Colchester United at the start of the 2002-03 season,[2] before moving permanently on a free transfer in October 2002.[3] He made over 150 appearances for the club, including 58 of their 60 matches in the 2003-04 season,[4] before moving on loan to Blackpool late in the 2005–06 season.

After his release from Colchester,[5] Stockley moved to Wycombe Wanderers in July 2006.[6] He spent the 2006-07 season as the club's regular right back, but he also filled in as centre back and sweeper during tactical changes. He lost his place at right back to Russell Martin in the 2007–08 season but he was used as a left back on many occasions. In February 2008 he had a trial with American club Dallas.[7]

Stockley left Wycombe and signed for Port Vale in May 2008,[8] signing a two year deal. He was made Port Vale captain in July of that year,[9] however less than 2 months later he was stripped of the captaincy in favour of Marc Richards. By mid-season Stockley found himself regularly on the Vale bench but said; "I think that Port Vale haven't seen the best of me yet, but I believe they will because I'm really happy here".[10]

He managed to battle his way back into the first team and win back his captaincy during the latter part of the 2008–09 season.[11] He admitted that at times in the season he had considered retirement but after winning back his first team spot he was enjoying his football.[12]

He renegotiated his contract in August 2009 in order to gain more first team football in the 2009–10 season; a clause that entitled Stockley to a 12 month contract extension after fifty games was removed.[13] He started the season fighting with new signing Adam Yates for a regular place, but was transfer listed in late September, along with the entire Port Vale squad, after manager Micky Adams saw his team slip to a third consecutive defeat.[14] After twelve appearances in the campaign, the defender shocked Vale fans by announcing his retirement in November 2009, at the age of 32.


"I've had sixteen fantastic years playing at a professional level, playing for great managers, great clubs in front of some fantastic supporters and it has been fantastic... I get caught up with it, and have always said to the lads, when I finish football I want to walk away and I want people to say, you know, he was a real good lad, a real nice lad, he worked hard, he trained hard, he played hard and he was an okay player, and that is all I ever wanted."

— Stockley reflects upon his career.[15]

Post-retirement

Stockley studied broadcast journalism at Staffordshire University during his time at Port Vale, hoping to pursue a career in the media upon his retirement as a player,[16] specifically as a pitch-side reporter.[17] He made appearances on Soccer AM before he retired.

"I'm doing a degree in sports journalism, that's something which really interests me," he said on the day his decision to retire was made public knowledge... I don't mind talking a little bit and to talk about football, or any sport, just really interests me and it was an opportunity I wanted to take."

— Stockley aiming for a career in journalism, in November 2009.[18]

He has completed his coaching badges at 'C' level and had originally planned to go into management.[19]

"Sam is an extremely driven character and I'm sure that he will be a huge success in whatever career he decides to pursue."

— Port Vale boss Micky Adams speaking in November 2009.[16]

Statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||Barnet||Third Division||21||0||0||0||0||0||24||0 |- |1997–98||Barnet||Third Division||41||0||1||0||4||0||49||0 |- |1998–99||Barnet||Third Division||41||0||1||0||2||0||45||0 |- |1999–00||Barnet||Third Division||34||0||0||0||2||0||39||0 |- |2000–01||Barnet||Third Division||45||1||2||0||2||0||52||1 |- |2001–02||Oxford United||Third Division||41||0||1||0||1||0||44||0 |- |2002–03||Colchester United||Second Division||33||1||1||0||0||0||35||1 |- |2003–04||Colchester United||Second Division||44||0||6||0||2||0||58||0 |- |2004–05||Colchester United||League One||37||1||5||0||2||0||44||1 |- |2005–06||Colchester United||League One||26||1||3||0||1||0||34||0 |- |2005-06||Blackpool||League One||7||0||0||0||0||0||7||0 |- |2006–07||Wycombe Wanderers||League Two||34||1||2||0||4||0||42||1 |- |2007–08||Wycombe Wanderers||League Two||22||0||1||0||0||0||23||0 |- |2008–09||Port Vale||League Two||22||0||1||0||1||0||25||0 |- |2009–10||Port Vale||League Two||9||0||0||0||2||0||12||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 3457||6||24||0||23||0||533||6 Template:Football player statistics 5457||6||24||0||23||0||533||6 |}

Notes

a. Football League Trophy results included in totals.
b. Play-off games included in totals

Honours

with Colchester United
with Blackpool

References

  1. ^ "Oxford sign Barnet defender". BBC Sport. 11 July, 2001. Retrieved 2009-06-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Stockley to stay with U's". BBC Sport. 26 September, 2002. Retrieved 2009-06-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Stockley signs for U's". BBC Sport. 31 October, 2002. Retrieved 2009-06-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Colchester pair pen deals". BBC Sport. 12 May, 2004. Retrieved 2009-06-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Parkinson allows quartet to leave". BBC Sport. 10 May 2006. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  6. ^ "Stockley completes Wycombe switch". BBC Sport. 17 July 2006. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  7. ^ "Stockley in MLS trial with Dallas". BBC Sport. 6 February 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  8. ^ "I'm here for promotion - Stockley". BBC Sport. 8 July 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  9. ^ "Stockley named new Vale captain". BBC Sport. 28 July 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  10. ^ "More to come from me - Stockley". BBC. 12 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  11. ^ "Stockley aims to take Vale chance". BBC Sport. 12 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  12. ^ Shaw, Steve (April 07, 2009). "Port Vale: Stockley back on track after difficult time on sidelines". The Sentinel. Retrieved 2009-04-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Stockley changes Port Vale deal". BBC Sport. 5 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
  14. ^ "Adams puts Vale squad up for sale". BBC Sport. 27 September 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
  15. ^ "SAM SAYS HIS GOODBYES". port-vale.co.uk. 02 Nov 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference set was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Shaw, Steve (November 3, 2009). "Port Vale: Stockley has write stuff for new career". The Sentinel. Retrieved 2009-11-03.
  18. ^ Burton, Chris (2nd November 2009). "From full-back to hack". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2009-11-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Stockley plans managerial career". BBC Sport. 16 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-16.

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