Ah-oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, its Sammy!
Yep, first up from the 4th round of nominations is popular goalkeeper Paul Sansome. If Sammy is elected, he'll become the third individual from the double promotion era to be elected, following in the footsteps of his manager Dave Webb and his team-mate Chris Powell. He will also be the first goalkeeper.
Sammy started out his career at Palace, but it was at Millwall where he got his breakthrough and he racked up over 150 appearances for the Lions appearing alongside such legends as Dave Cusack, Anton Otulakowski, Dave Martin, Paul Roberts and er Dean Neal, as well as some right donkeys like Teddy Sheringham, Neil Ruddock and Sam Allardyce. George Graham was his manager and Theo Foley assistant.
Signed for Southend in March 1987 by fellow nominee Paul Clark, Sansome became an instant crowd favourite through not being Eric Steele. He made his deubt against Chesterfield at Roots Hall, marking his debut with a clean sheet, the first of many, and played six games that season before his season was curtailed by a broken jaw.
The following season he was Southend's undisputed number one, playing in all but 2 league games, but his steadying presence at the back wasn't sufficient to prevent Southend shipping 75 goals (an improvement on the 88 conceded the season before with Eric Steele and Paul Newell in goal, but a far cry from the days of the record setting Mervyn Cawston) and Southend were relegated on the last day of the season.
As all Southend fans know, that was the start of something special and Sammy played in every game for the next two seasons as Southend achieved a historic double promotion.
The division 4 campaign could not have got off much better for Sammy as he kept an incredible eight clean sheets in the first ten games (and just as incredibly conceded 8 goals in the other two games!), playing behind a defence including current assistant manager Paul Brush and young centre-back and future Hall of Famer Spencer Prior. However Prior's broken leg ruled him out for the season and in his absence the defence faltered until Paul Clark and the young on loan Spurs central defender, Guy Butters linked up in January to help inspire the club to 5 consecutive home clean sheets. In all Sammy kept 21 clean sheets that season whilst conceding 48, which went a long way to helping Southend to 3rd place and promotion to the 3rd division.
Promotion to the 3rd might have been expected, but the following season's exploits were beyond the fans' wildest expectations as Southend blitzed division three to achieve a historic promotion to the promised land of the second division. Sammy was once more ever present. His total of 12 clean sheets might have been down on the previous season and the goals conceded slightly up on 51, but for so long as the likes of Angell, Benjamin, Ansah, Tilson and Martin were banging in the goals (all five hit double figures), it really didn't matter.
The following season Sammy was once more between the sticks, as Southend continued their relentless assault on the football league, most memorably topping the table on New Year's Day having thrashed Newcastle 4-0. Sammy even missed his first game in three years when that cheating little ******* John Hendrie dived to get Sammy sent off and give Middlesbrough an undeserved penalty and 1-0 victory (bonus question - which player went in goal and what is he now doing?). Sammy was then suspended for a game, allowing the talented, but at this stage, raw, youngster Simon Royce to make his Blues bow.
Sammy managed to hold off Roycie for most of the following season, but come the big game against Wet Sham, Sammy was suspended after another red card and his young understudy who he'd been coaching came in and played a blinder. Sammy was reinstated the next game, but from this point on he had serious competition for the Southend goalkeeper top. A couple of games later, B***y F*Y - never one to be afraid of making changes - did the unthinkable and dropped Sammy for the first time in his Southend career. Sammy was however back in the team for the final game of the season as Southend memorably beat Luton in Stan's final game, to ensure safety.
The following season Sammy held onto the keeper's gloves, limited Roycie to just 4 starts (bizarrely Roycie started both games against Barnsley that season and appeared twice against Grimsby- in fact 4 of Roycie's 8 first appearances were against Grimsby - Sammy can't have been fond of those teams!) as Southend looked a good bet for at least the play-offs until Judas Fry's act of treachery. Peter Taylor was unable to keep the momentum going as he lost the dressing room, leading to Southend to slide down to the lower reaches of the table.
The 94/95 season saw the end of an era. Southend had started the season well, with Ronnie Whelan's influence in midfield taking the team up to an undeserved spot just shy of the play-offs, but with Otto sold and Whelan battling his legs, Southend's season disintegrated. The team was tail-spinning towards relegation when Vic Jobson (still no nominations) intervened from his sickbed to send Spud on holiday and make Steve Thompson caretaker manager. Thompson knew the team needed shaking up and instantly recalled from out of the cold Tilson and Sussex, along with the fit again Whelan. It didn't do the job and Southend lost (albeit unfortunately) his first two games. More changes were clearly needed and for his third game he also brought back Gary Jones, Mick Bodley and the young keeper Simon Royce. This did the trick as Royce kept consecutive clean sheets and never looked back, establishing himself as the Southend number one.
Royce played every game of the 1995/96 season, producing some astonishing displays and often being the difference between conceding just the three goals and letting in the double figures Keith Dublin's "defending" merited. Sammy, use to being an ever present himself had to make do with a place in the reserves, being only occasionally given a spot on the bench. He therefore accepted a loan move to B***y F*y's hated Birmingham City, to become Judas's 68th signing in 25 months.
Fortunately, Sammy showed himself to be the true Southend legend we all know him to be, as replacing the injured Bart Griemink (forget Darryl v Bart, how about Sammy v Bart?) and he had an absolute shocker. He only played two games for them, and I have hazy recollections of one game being a vital cup quarter-final in which he scored an own goal and him conceding about seven in the other. Maybe this was wishful thinking, but I seem to recall Agent Sansome successfully sabotaged their season.
The following year he was back at Roots Hall, but he made only three further appearances. His last appearance at Roots Hall was fittingly a victory, 5-2 against the team who finished champions. At the end of the 96/97 season, he was let go and joined Gravesend as Player-Manager. I think he also made a return to Roots Hall when in his 40s, as an emergency goalkeeper, narrowly beating out Terry Alderton for the spot on the bench, but I may have dreamed this as I can find nothing substantiating it!
Sammy wasn't a particularly spectacular keeper, maybe lacking the brilliance of a Royce, but he was a rock steady influence at the back. He wasn't infallible, one fumble against Oxford when he ended up throwing the ball into his own net was particularly memorable, but such events were very much the exception rather than the rule over his 9 year Southend career and that aside it is hard to think of many other occasions when he made mistakes.
His 357 appearances is a record by a goalkeeper for Southend, and 6th on the all-time list behind only Moody and Pountney who have already been elected, Paul Clark who is up for election in the next fortnight and Sandy Anderson and Tony Bentley (no nominations yet). He'll always be remembered as the keeper who was ever present for that historic double promotion, but will that be sufficient for Sammy to be elected into the Hall of Fame?
Paul Sansome
Southend 1988-1997
Total appearances 357 (308 league, 8 FA Cup, 19 League Cup, 22 Other Cup)
Promotions: 2 (1989-90, 1990-91)
Relegations: 2 (1988-89, 1996/97)
Yep, first up from the 4th round of nominations is popular goalkeeper Paul Sansome. If Sammy is elected, he'll become the third individual from the double promotion era to be elected, following in the footsteps of his manager Dave Webb and his team-mate Chris Powell. He will also be the first goalkeeper.
Sammy started out his career at Palace, but it was at Millwall where he got his breakthrough and he racked up over 150 appearances for the Lions appearing alongside such legends as Dave Cusack, Anton Otulakowski, Dave Martin, Paul Roberts and er Dean Neal, as well as some right donkeys like Teddy Sheringham, Neil Ruddock and Sam Allardyce. George Graham was his manager and Theo Foley assistant.
Signed for Southend in March 1987 by fellow nominee Paul Clark, Sansome became an instant crowd favourite through not being Eric Steele. He made his deubt against Chesterfield at Roots Hall, marking his debut with a clean sheet, the first of many, and played six games that season before his season was curtailed by a broken jaw.
The following season he was Southend's undisputed number one, playing in all but 2 league games, but his steadying presence at the back wasn't sufficient to prevent Southend shipping 75 goals (an improvement on the 88 conceded the season before with Eric Steele and Paul Newell in goal, but a far cry from the days of the record setting Mervyn Cawston) and Southend were relegated on the last day of the season.
As all Southend fans know, that was the start of something special and Sammy played in every game for the next two seasons as Southend achieved a historic double promotion.
The division 4 campaign could not have got off much better for Sammy as he kept an incredible eight clean sheets in the first ten games (and just as incredibly conceded 8 goals in the other two games!), playing behind a defence including current assistant manager Paul Brush and young centre-back and future Hall of Famer Spencer Prior. However Prior's broken leg ruled him out for the season and in his absence the defence faltered until Paul Clark and the young on loan Spurs central defender, Guy Butters linked up in January to help inspire the club to 5 consecutive home clean sheets. In all Sammy kept 21 clean sheets that season whilst conceding 48, which went a long way to helping Southend to 3rd place and promotion to the 3rd division.
Promotion to the 3rd might have been expected, but the following season's exploits were beyond the fans' wildest expectations as Southend blitzed division three to achieve a historic promotion to the promised land of the second division. Sammy was once more ever present. His total of 12 clean sheets might have been down on the previous season and the goals conceded slightly up on 51, but for so long as the likes of Angell, Benjamin, Ansah, Tilson and Martin were banging in the goals (all five hit double figures), it really didn't matter.
The following season Sammy was once more between the sticks, as Southend continued their relentless assault on the football league, most memorably topping the table on New Year's Day having thrashed Newcastle 4-0. Sammy even missed his first game in three years when that cheating little ******* John Hendrie dived to get Sammy sent off and give Middlesbrough an undeserved penalty and 1-0 victory (bonus question - which player went in goal and what is he now doing?). Sammy was then suspended for a game, allowing the talented, but at this stage, raw, youngster Simon Royce to make his Blues bow.
Sammy managed to hold off Roycie for most of the following season, but come the big game against Wet Sham, Sammy was suspended after another red card and his young understudy who he'd been coaching came in and played a blinder. Sammy was reinstated the next game, but from this point on he had serious competition for the Southend goalkeeper top. A couple of games later, B***y F*Y - never one to be afraid of making changes - did the unthinkable and dropped Sammy for the first time in his Southend career. Sammy was however back in the team for the final game of the season as Southend memorably beat Luton in Stan's final game, to ensure safety.
The following season Sammy held onto the keeper's gloves, limited Roycie to just 4 starts (bizarrely Roycie started both games against Barnsley that season and appeared twice against Grimsby- in fact 4 of Roycie's 8 first appearances were against Grimsby - Sammy can't have been fond of those teams!) as Southend looked a good bet for at least the play-offs until Judas Fry's act of treachery. Peter Taylor was unable to keep the momentum going as he lost the dressing room, leading to Southend to slide down to the lower reaches of the table.
The 94/95 season saw the end of an era. Southend had started the season well, with Ronnie Whelan's influence in midfield taking the team up to an undeserved spot just shy of the play-offs, but with Otto sold and Whelan battling his legs, Southend's season disintegrated. The team was tail-spinning towards relegation when Vic Jobson (still no nominations) intervened from his sickbed to send Spud on holiday and make Steve Thompson caretaker manager. Thompson knew the team needed shaking up and instantly recalled from out of the cold Tilson and Sussex, along with the fit again Whelan. It didn't do the job and Southend lost (albeit unfortunately) his first two games. More changes were clearly needed and for his third game he also brought back Gary Jones, Mick Bodley and the young keeper Simon Royce. This did the trick as Royce kept consecutive clean sheets and never looked back, establishing himself as the Southend number one.
Royce played every game of the 1995/96 season, producing some astonishing displays and often being the difference between conceding just the three goals and letting in the double figures Keith Dublin's "defending" merited. Sammy, use to being an ever present himself had to make do with a place in the reserves, being only occasionally given a spot on the bench. He therefore accepted a loan move to B***y F*y's hated Birmingham City, to become Judas's 68th signing in 25 months.
Fortunately, Sammy showed himself to be the true Southend legend we all know him to be, as replacing the injured Bart Griemink (forget Darryl v Bart, how about Sammy v Bart?) and he had an absolute shocker. He only played two games for them, and I have hazy recollections of one game being a vital cup quarter-final in which he scored an own goal and him conceding about seven in the other. Maybe this was wishful thinking, but I seem to recall Agent Sansome successfully sabotaged their season.
The following year he was back at Roots Hall, but he made only three further appearances. His last appearance at Roots Hall was fittingly a victory, 5-2 against the team who finished champions. At the end of the 96/97 season, he was let go and joined Gravesend as Player-Manager. I think he also made a return to Roots Hall when in his 40s, as an emergency goalkeeper, narrowly beating out Terry Alderton for the spot on the bench, but I may have dreamed this as I can find nothing substantiating it!
Sammy wasn't a particularly spectacular keeper, maybe lacking the brilliance of a Royce, but he was a rock steady influence at the back. He wasn't infallible, one fumble against Oxford when he ended up throwing the ball into his own net was particularly memorable, but such events were very much the exception rather than the rule over his 9 year Southend career and that aside it is hard to think of many other occasions when he made mistakes.
His 357 appearances is a record by a goalkeeper for Southend, and 6th on the all-time list behind only Moody and Pountney who have already been elected, Paul Clark who is up for election in the next fortnight and Sandy Anderson and Tony Bentley (no nominations yet). He'll always be remembered as the keeper who was ever present for that historic double promotion, but will that be sufficient for Sammy to be elected into the Hall of Fame?
Paul Sansome
Southend 1988-1997
Total appearances 357 (308 league, 8 FA Cup, 19 League Cup, 22 Other Cup)
Promotions: 2 (1989-90, 1990-91)
Relegations: 2 (1988-89, 1996/97)