Ashley George Sammons (born 10 November 1991) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Evesham United. Sammons began his career with

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

, for whom he made only one appearance, in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He moved into

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane. Worcester City's ...

Redditch United Redditch United Football Club is an English football club based in Redditch, Worcestershire. The club participates in the and play their home games at the V Trico Stadium. They are managed by former Captain and Assistant Manager Matt Clarke. ...

(three spells),

Corby Town Corby Town Football Club is a football club based in Corby, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Steel Park. History The club was established in 1948, taking over from Stewarts & Lloyds as the main team ...

and

Hednesford Town Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park. History The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top.

before joining National League club

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

in 2017. He then joined Redditch for a fourth time, initially on a dual registration, in November 2017, and left Moors in January 2018. He represented his country at under-17 level.

Club career

Sammons joined Birmingham City's youth academy after being spotted playing for his local under-10s team. He progressed through the academy teams, playing for the under-18s while still a schoolboy, and was in the starting eleven for the 5–0 victory over

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

in the final of the

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest county cup competition still active. The Birmingham Senior Cup is ...

; though nominally a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, several first-team players were included. In November 2008 Sammons signed his first professional contract, to expire in the summer of 2011. He was given a

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to ...

and included among the substitutes for the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

match against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in January 2009, but remained unused. He captained the under-18 team to the semi-final of the 2008–09 FA Youth Cup, in which they lost 6–1 on aggregate to their

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

counterparts; Sammons scored Birmingham's goal, "curling a 30-yard shot" past the Liverpool

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Though included in the squads for pre-season friendlies, he did not initially receive a squad number for the 2009–10 season. After manager

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...

named only six of the permitted seven substitutes for the

match at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, because they "could fill the squad with younger players that have just stepped up from the Academy but they're not ready", Sammons told the ''

Birmingham Mail The ''Birmingham Mail'' (branded the ''Black Country Mail'' in the Black Country) is a tabloid newspaper based in Birmingham, England but distributed around Birmingham, the Black Country, and Solihull and parts of Warwickshire, Worcestershire ...

'' that he disagreed, feeling that he,

Jordon Mutch Jordon James Edward Sydney Mutch (born 2 December 1991) is an English professional footballer who most recently played as a central midfielder for Australian A-League club Macarthur FC. Mutch joined Birmingham City in 2007 from Derby County's y ...

and Mitchell McPike were all capable of playing first-team football. Three weeks later he was named on the bench for the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

match at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

, but again remained unused. He made his first-team debut in the starting eleven for the League Cup third-round match at

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on 22 September 2009. McLeish described the player as "a disciplined passer of the ball ho'sgot good energy", stressing that although he didn't "just want to throw young players jerseys every time we have an injury crisis", in this case it was deserved. He made no further first-team appearances before a knee injury disrupted his 2010–11 season, at the end of which he signed a new one-year contract. He was released when that contract expired at the end of the 2011–12 season. On 10 August 2012, Sammons signed for

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

club

. He was released by Hereford on 8 October 2012 after making nine appearances and scoring one goal. Sammons then joined

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

club

on 27 December 2012. After a short stay with Worcester City, Sammons left to join

in March 2013. Sammons left Redditch United in June 2015 for National League club

, but returned to Redditch in November. Sammons signed for

on 21 May 2016. He left the Pitmen in January 2017, reuniting with his former boss Liam McDonald at

. He then joined Redditch for a fourth time, initially on a dual registration, in November 2017, and left Moors in January 2018. On 3 July 2018, Sammons completed a move to Southern League Premier Central club

Rushall Olympic Rushall Olympic Football Club is an English football club based in Rushall, a former mining village now forming part of the northern suburbs of Walsall. The team plays in the . History Early years Although football had been played in the villa ...

on a one-year deal, and again was reunited with his manager at

and

, Liam McDonald. In March 2023, he joined Southern League Division One South side Evesham United.

International career

As a 15-year-old, Sammons played three matches for the England under-17 team in the 2007 Nordic Tournament, against their Icelandic,

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

counterparts.

Personal life

Sammons was born to Bryan and Kim Sammons in

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

where he attended Langley School. His older brother

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadi ...

played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

for

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

Honours

Birmingham City *

: 2008

References

External links

* * *
The youth team player with more than a hint of David Beckham about him
''Birmingham Mail'' article from March 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sammons, Ashley 1991 births Living people Sportspeople from Solihull English footballers England youth international footballers Association football midfielders Birmingham City F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Worcester City F.C. players Redditch United F.C. players Corby Town F.C. players Hednesford Town F.C. players Solihull Moors F.C. players Rushall Olympic F.C. players Evesham United F.C. players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players