Samuel Lloyd Matthews (born 10 March 1997) 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 le ...

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

Havant & Waterlooville Havant & Waterlooville Football Club is a professional football club based in Havant, Hampshire, England. The club participates in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, after relegation from the National League in the 20 ...

Career

AFC Bournemouth

Born in

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, Matthews joined

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

at the age of 10 and signed his first senior contract with the club in 2014, on his 17th birthday. His first taste of senior football came in a loan spell with his hometown club of Poole Town in 2014. However, he suffered a serious ankle injury just 29 minutes into his debut in a 4–0

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 ...

win over Bradford Town and was forced to return to his parent club. On 31 August 2016, Matthews and fellow Bournemouth youngster Brandon Goodship joined

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

of the

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 s ...

on loan until January 2017. He was an unused substitute on 3 September in a 0–0 away draw at Guiseley, and made his debut the following week in a 4–1 home defeat to

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

where he was a 66th minute replacement for

Rohdell Gordon Rohdell Antonio Gordon (born 28 March 1989) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Margate. Club career Gordon was born in the London Borough of Wandsworth and represented South London as a schoolboy, playing alongside Jordon I ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in a 6–1 away defeat at

Dover Athletic Dover Athletic Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in the town of Dover, Kent, England. The club currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 198 ...

as his goal gave Braintree the lead. On 1 January 2017, Matthews' loan spell at Braintree ended and he returned to Bournemouth having made 13 appearances in all competitions, scoring 1 goal. On 31 January 2017, Matthews joined fellow National League side

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

on loan for the remainder of the season. He made his debut for the club in a 1–1 away draw with Guiseley and scored his first goal for the club with a brace in a 3–2 away victory over

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 ...

. He finished his loan spell with Eastleigh with 3 goals in 13 appearances. He returned to Eastleigh on 8 August 2017, in a loan deal that would see him stay with the club until January. On 12 August 2017, he was substituted on for Mark Yeates in the 81st minute of a 2–2 draw with

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

to appear for the first time in his second spell with the club. He gave Eastleigh the lead in a dramatic 3–3 draw with FC Halifax Town to score his first goal back for the club and went on to score another goal for the club before his loan spell ended on 9 January 2018. Eastleigh however decided to extend the loan spell until the end of the season. Matthews finished the season for the spitfires with 6 goals in 39 appearances which included a hat-trick on the final day of the season in a 4–1 away victory against

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 ...

. Matthews' performances were rewarded when he was awarded with the Player of the Season award for Eastleigh.

Bristol Rovers

On 6 June 2018, Matthews agreed to join League One side Bristol Rovers upon the expiration of his Bournemouth contract on 1 July 2018. Matthews made his debut for the club when he came off the bench in the opening day defeat to Peterborough United when he replaced Kyle Bennett in the 66th minute. Matthews joined Eastleigh for a third time on loan on 21 March 2019 and would go on to make 8 appearances before the end of the season. He also came off the bench in both the play-off quarter-final victory over

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 the semi-final defeat to Salford City where Matthews had a penalty saved by Salford goalkeeper

Chris Neal Christopher Michael Neal (born 23 October 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club AFC Fylde. He began his career at Preston North End, making his English Football League debut in February 2005, having p ...

in the shootout. At the end of the 2019–20 season, Matthews was released by Bristol Rovers.

Crawley Town

Matthews signed for Crawley Town on a two-year deal in the summer of 2020. He made his debut for Crawley Town on 19 September 2020 in a 1–0

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 ...

victory over

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

. On 22 February 2022, Matthews joined

side Aldershot Town on loan for the remainder of the 2021–22 season.

Wealdstone

On 21 October 2022, Matthews signed for National League club Wealdstone on a short-term deal until January 2023. On 17 November 2022 Matthews left National League club Wealdstone by mutual consent.

Havant & Waterlooville

On 26 January 2023

announced the signing of Matthews on a deal until the end of the season.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Samuel 1997 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from Poole Men's association football midfielders AFC Bournemouth players Poole Town F.C. players Braintree Town F.C. players Eastleigh F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players Wealdstone F.C. players Havant & Waterlooville F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players