Samuel Ian Russell (born 4 October 1982) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is an academy goalkeeping coach at EFL League One side

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

As a player he was a

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 ...

from 2000 until 2021. He began his career in 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 Fo ...

with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

although he failed to make a first team appearance but would notably go on to have three spells with Darlington between 2002 and 2012. He also played for Gateshead, Scunthorpe United,

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

and

before joining

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

in 2018 where he combined playing duties as James McKeown's number two with coaching the clubs goalkeepers.

Playing career

Middlesbrough

Russell was born in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

and signed as a professional on 7 July 2000 for his hometown team after progressing through their

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

. He had a successful loan spell at Gateshead during the tail end of the 2001–02 season, followed by a brief period at Darlington on loan in 2002 after Mick Tait brought him in during a keeping crisis. He played in only one game, a 1–1 draw against

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. In August 2003 he was sent to Scunthorpe United on loan where he stayed for three months and made 10 appearances. He finally left Middlesbrough in the summer of 2004, moving to Darlington on a permanent basis. He never appeared in Middlesbrough's first team.

Darlington

He was brought to Darlington by David Hodgson in August 2004. With the retirement of goalkeeping legend

Andy Collett Andrew Alfred Collett (born 29 of October 1973)is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Collett was born in Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town i ...

, the club only had two goalkeepers on their books in Michael Price and youth team player Jack Norton. Russell was a target for Hodgson after he heard that Middlesbrough were releasing the youngster. Initially it was thought Russell would be number two to Price, but performances during pre-season meant that Russell got the nod. Assistant manager Mark Proctor said that both Price and Russell were of virtual equal quality but Russsell's distribution was slightly better. In the opening game of the 2004–05 season Russell made his mark with a superb performance which earned him the man of the match. His superb saves kept Darlington in the game and meant Darlington hung on to an opening day victory. He was ever-present in the first team in the 2004–05 season, and signed a new two-year contract in July 2005. He seemed to have established himself as the number one until just before the start of the 2007–08 season until failed to agree terms with then manager Dave Penny and Russell left to go to Rochdale and left Darlington in June 2007 after three years in which he made 107 league appearances.

Rochdale

In July 2007 he signed for

, making his first start for the club in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

second round tie against

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

in October 2007. Following an injury to regular keeper James Spencer, Russell was next called upon in 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 ...

defeat at

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. He retained his place in the side and in December 2007, signed a contract until the end of the season having been on non-contract terms. He broke a finger in the 2–1 defeat at Lincoln City in February 2008 and was expected to be out of action until April. In the 2008–09 season Russell was handed the number one shirt for Rochdale. He had made some important saves for Rochdale that season, however he made the occasional mistake, such as scoring an own goal in the Rochdale–Bury derby, and slipping in a late equaliser by

Jamie Ward Jamie John Ward (born 12 May 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ilkeston Town where he is player-manager. He has represented the Northern Ireland national team. Born in Birmingham he began his career with his home ...

against

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

despite a

Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to: Politics *Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21 * Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...

late winner. In February he was replaced by Blackburn loanee Frank Fielding after Spencer was loaned out to Chester City.

Wrexham

After being released by Rochdale at the end of the season, Russell signed for Conference National side

after impressing on trial.

Return to Darlington

In May 2010 he agreed to rejoin Darlington on a one-year contract. He became their regular goalkeeper, and played at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

as they beat

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

to win the FA Trophy. He signed a one-year contract extension, but when the club suffered financial difficulties and failed to pay the players, he submitted his 14-day notice at the end of December and left the club for fellow Conference club

in January 2012.

Forest Green Rovers

Russell made his Forest Green debut on 21 January 2012 in a 0–0 draw against Newport County. In his first eight Forest Green performances he saved four consecutive penalty kicks. He made his hundredth league appearance for the club in a 2–1 win over

on 18 March 2014. In March 2014, he signed a contract extension to remain with the club. A run of 144 consecutive league appearances for Forest Green was brought to an end on 21 February 2015 when he was replaced by Steve Arnold for a 3–0 win over

AFC Telford United AFC Telford United is a football club based in Telford, Shropshire, England. The club was formed in 2004 after the original Telford United, founded in 1872, folded due to financial problems. Currently members of the National League North, they ...

. On 4 May 2015, it was announced that he was leaving Forest Green after his contract had come to an end.

Gateshead

In June 2015, Russell joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

side Gateshead, returning to a club where over a decade earlier he had spent time on loan.

Return to Forest Green Rovers

On 1 July 2016, it was announced that Russell had returned to former club

on a two-year deal. He made his 150th league appearance for the club in a 4–1 away win over Maidstone United on 27 August 2016. Between 17 September 2016 and 29 October 2016, he kept a run of seven

clean sheets, until Oliver Hawkins header in a 1–1 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge saw him concede and narrowly miss out on the league record of eight consecutive clean sheets set by

Alan Julian Alan John Julian (born 11 March 1983) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for National League South club Hampton & Richmond Borough. Julian started his career at Brentford, progressing through the club's academy and makin ...

for Stevenage. Russell appeared in every single of minute of Forest Green's

2016-17 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first con ...

campaign, as he helped the club secure promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history with a 3-1

play-off final win against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

. He was rewarded with a new one-year contract in June 2017 for Forest Green's first season in

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

. He was released by Forest Green at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Coaching career

Grimsby Town

On 9 July 2018 he joined

as the club's new player / goalkeeper coach. Russell retired from playing at the end of the 2020–21 season but remained

Paul Hurst Paul Michael Hurst (born 25 September 1974) is an English football manager and former player who is the manager of club Grimsby Town. As a player, he was a defender from 1993 to 2008, notably playing his entire career at Rotherham United, b ...

's first team goalkeeping coach. On 25 June 2022, Russell announced via his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that he was leaving Grimsby. Russell returned to former club Forest Green Rovers as an academy goalkeeping coach in November 2022.

Career statistics

Honours

Darlington * FA Trophy:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Sam 1982 births Living people Footballers from Middlesbrough English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players Middlesbrough F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. non-playing staff Forest Green Rovers F.C. non-playing staff