Adam Stansfield 1978-2010

[southamptongrecian]

R.I.P. Adam, you will be missed by everyone.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

would like to say more but I'm lost for words.

 

[Jersey Tone]

Nothing new to add, RIP Adam!!!

 

[Orienteer]

Orient fan here to offer my sympathies to a good, honest pro and a lovely man to boot, having had a brief 5 minute chat with him at Huish Park one year.

May he rest in peace.

 

[hardi2b]

woke late this morning turned on sky sports to hear the shocking news, never knew the man, never saw him play, never new of his good works, yet here I am thousands of miles away, tear - filled eyes oddly affected pondering how the spirit of this much loved person trancends time and distance, t'is said the good die young......I guess his "work" was complete.

may your resting place be soft and safe.

Colin

 

[chrisnaan]

My mate who is at the England match, just sent me a text to say there was an announcement about Stanno, and a big round of applause.

 

[valetta baby]

A tribute from Yeovil


For a player who had such a defining influence upon Yeovil Town's history, it's worth remembering that Glovers fans were a little underwhelmed when manager Gary Johnson chose to sign up an unknown player called Adam Stansfield in November 2001, from Western League side Elmore. Adam wasn't the name at that level that Glovers fans had been calling on the club to look at - Tony Lynch and Ellis Laight at Taunton Town were far more prolific. We're not even too sure if he was the top scorer at Elmore, let alone the Western League.

The seeds were sown though, in a Yeovil Town Reserves match a month earlier, when the Glovers travelled to Elmore, and Johnson was given a recommendation to have a look at him. Later that month, Adam was invited on trial and played in a behind-closed-doors match against Exeter City Reserves - a club that had already taken him on trial, but declined the option to take him on, after he played for their Reserve side. Torquay United had also had a chance to sign him after their own trial, but passed up the opportunity.

In the second week of November though, Johnson took the plunge, and the former Cullompton Rangers player left Elmore, and gave up his job as a circuit board inspector in pursuit of being a professional footballer. The start was a baptism of fire; a hellish Friday night journey to Southport on a gridlocked M6, and a 3-0 defeat just 24 hours after signing for the club as Adam was chucked in the deep end, into a Glovers side ravaged by injury.

Not too surprisingly it took a while for Adam to adjust to life three leagues higher and to professional football. Gary Johnson joked that when he signed him, he was striking the ball as if he had a wet kipper on the end of his leg, and set him up at the away end of the stadium after everyone had gone home, firing footballs at the stadium wall to improve his technique.

Gradually though, it all began to come good, and after Adam opened his account in December against Northwich, the turn of the year began to see him come into his own, and the spark for that was the FA Trophy. Adam was starting to form a strong partnership with Carl Alford, in a classic "big man and little man" combination. On his return to his home town, he scored twice against Tiverton Town in the Trophy - the 'other' Tiverton side! - setting him on a run of five goals in four games in January. A new Yeovil Town hero had arrived. Legend has it that the local bookies had been taken to the cleaners that afternoon - Adam's family and friends had arrived en masse for their 'home town' fixture and had piled on the money for him to get on the scoresheet. A little known non-league player was never going to attract narrow odds.

Although Carl Alford is rightly credited as having been the inspiration for one of Yeovil's greatest ever comebacks in football, it was Adam's two goals in the 5-4 win over Doncaster Rovers that brought the game to 3-3 and then 4-3 in Yeovil's favour. He scored in every FA Trophy round during 2001-02, except for the semi-final stage, and was on his way to becoming Yeovil Town's leading goalscorer for the season, with 16 goals, despite having only arrived halfway through the season.

Adam's finest moment undeniably happened at Villa Park - the FA Trophy Final, and Yeovil Town's first ever major cup final. With Carl Alford already having netted in front of the Stevenage Borough fans, Adam's role in a man-of-the-match performance was to be put clean through on goal by his strike partner as he ran towards Villa's Holt End. As the Stevenage keeper advanced, he cooly slotted the ball home to send the Glovers fans crazy, and Stansfield ran directly into them, disappearing into a sea of green. Speaking after the game to BBC Somerset, Adam admitted he was glad he got his goal at that end:

"I just wanted to get in with the fans and celebrate with them because they've been so good all season in how they've welcomed me with open arms. They've been brilliant so I just wanted to celebrate with them. That was the end that I'd been visualising. I wouldn't have minded doing that in front of the Stevenage end, but to do it in front of them meant a lot."

Adam's mention of 'visualisation' relates to a visit the club did on the Tuesday before the Villa Park match. Sports psychologist Mark Layder encouraged the players to get comfortable at was at that time a huge stadium for all of the players by getting them to visualise doing great things at the ground. With Adam, it was for him to visualise scoring at the Holt End in front of the Yeovil Town fans. Later that same week, he did exactly what Layder told him he would do.




After the game he also immortalised himself in other ways - the decision of Sky Sports to stick a live microphone under his nose upon the final whistle got them not quite the interview they expected: "I've come f***ing miles for this!" he said, as he beamed at the cameras, totally oblivious to the fact that he'd just sworn live on national television. But rather than cause controversy, his expletive seemed only to endear himself further to the Yeovil faithful - he had captured the emotion of what we were all feeling at the time. It had been a long long wait for the 'nearly club' that had fallen at the semi-final hurdle twice in the early 1970s.




Alas, if the 2001-02 season had been his finest hour, the 2002-03 season was a horrible one. Gravesend and Northfleet keeper Paul Wilkerson - the very keeper he had beaten at Villa Park whilst in a Stevenage shirt - collided with him on the opening day of the season in a 50-50 ball, and after a six minute delay, Adam's season was cruelly ended on a stretcher down in Dorchester. By the time we next saw him in a testimonial match for David Laws in May 2003 at the tail end of that season, he had missed Yeovil Town's promotion season and their rise into the Football League. Appropriately enough though, he netted the final goal in that match at Weymouth, giving him hope for the following season.




Not surprisingly, with the Glovers having stepped up a gear and a league since that moment down in Dorchester, Adam was playing catch-up, but his comeback was complete in September 2003, when he got himself another milestone - his first Football League goal, against Swansea City, provoking an emotional response from Gary Johnson after the game, who had fought with him for Adam to complete his recovery:

"You people don't see him. I see him every day and I saw him all last year and all this year and how hard he works. It puts a tear in your eye to be honest, when you see him, when he's wondering if there's any light at the end of the tunnel. He had a fantastic season two years ago, but then he wasn't involved in the celebrations last year, so there was certainly a lump in my throat when he scored the goal and I'm sure in 6,500 other people. Credit to him, because he's worked so hard to come back."

It was harder going though for Adam to get a consistent run in Yeovil's new Football League side. New strikers had come in during his absence, and he tended to be used as an impact substitute during the season. The 12 month absence had not helped him, and he needed more regular football to get into his stride.

The Glovers offered him a chance to attend the 2004-05 pre-season to try and earn a new contract with the club, but on June 14th 2004, Adam's three year career with Yeovil Town came to an end, signing for Hereford United, at that time playing in the Conference.

We won't attempt to analyse his post-Yeovil career in too much detail - suffice to say that once again success surrounded Adam once again. He was in Hereford's 2006 play-off final winning side, and then when he joined Exeter City later that summer, he was part of their side that gained back-to-back promotions during 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Given that the Glovers have rubbed shoulders with Hereford and Exeter so much in recent years, it's fairly remarkable that it took until January 2010 for Adam to make his first return to Huish Park since leaving almost six years previously. The inevitable happened - the name of Adam Stansfield was once again on the scoresheet - and to his credit he merely walked away, rather than celebrate the goal against his former club.

Sadly that was to be the one and only time he returned to his old club as a player. Two months later he was admitted to hospital suffering from abdominal pains and the diagnosis was bowel cancer. Following an operation, he remarkably joined in with Exeter's pre-season training schedule on their opening day, in advance of going in for chemotherapy at the start of July.

When the end came for Adam, it mercifully came quickly. On Tuesday 10th August 2010, just after Exeter City and Yeovil Town had played home matches, the news came through that Adam had passed away; a tragic loss to his family at the age of 31.

He has left his legacy for many football fans across the West Country without a doubt though. For Yeovil Town fans, he will be remembered for that goal in the FA Trophy Final that guarantees his place in the Glovers history books. Hereford and Exeter fans will remember him as being part of their play-off and promotion escapades. He will also be remembered by many as a footballer that played with a smile on his face - he loved the feeling of having made it in the game, after those early rejections, and fought every inch of the way. To his wife Marie and his family, we send our deepest condolences, but also our thanks that Adam was able to shape Yeovil Town's history in such a major way. Without that FA Trophy Final win giving the club its launchpad, we might not be where we are today. For that, he will never be forgotten.

 

[rugby red]

Heard the news earlier. Very sad.

 

[supergulls]

He loved football, football loved him and will miss him dearly

RIP Adam

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

Thanks for the info valetta baby.....

Adam arrived at the Grecians eventually & was as talismatic for us as he was for Yeovil & Hereford..

 

[00gill78]

Goodbye Stanno.