Samuel Matthews (footballer)

Samuel Lloyd Matthews (born 10 March 1997) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Crawley Town.

Samuel Matthews
Personal information
Full name Samuel Lloyd Matthews[1]
Date of birth (1997-03-10) 10 March 1997[2]
Place of birth Poole, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.76 m)[2]
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Crawley Town
Number 20
Youth career
2007–2018 Bournemouth
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2016–2018 Bournemouth 0 (0)
2014 → Poole Town 0 (0)
2016–2017 → Braintree Town (loan) 11 (1)
2017 → Eastleigh (loan) 13 (3)
2017–2018 → Eastleigh (loan) 39 (6)
2018–2020 Bristol Rovers 16 (0)
2019 → Eastleigh (loan) 8 (0)
2020– Crawley Town 16 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:45, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Career

Bournemouth

Born in Poole,[3] Matthews joined Bournemouth at the age of 10 and signed his first senior contract with the club in 2014, on his 17th birthday.[4]

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 win over Bradford Town and was forced to return to his parent club.[5]

On 31 August 2016, Matthews and fellow Bournemouth youngster Brandon Goodship joined Braintree Town of the National League on loan until January 2017.[6] He was an unused substitute on 3 September in a 0–0 away draw at Guiseley,[7] and made his debut the following week in a 4–1 home defeat to Gateshead where he was a 66th minute replacement for Rohdell Gordon.[8] He scored his first goal for the club in a 6–1 away defeat at Dover Athletic as his goal gave Braintree the lead.[9] 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.[10]

On 31 January 2017, Matthews joined fellow National League side Eastleigh on loan for the remainder of the season.[11] He made his debut for the club in a 1–1 away draw with Guiseley[12] and scored his first goal for the club with a brace in a 3–2 away victory over Torquay United.[13] He finished his loan spell with Eastleigh with 3 goals in 13 appearances.[10]

He returned to Eastleigh on 8 August 2017, in a loan deal that would see him stay with the club until January.[14] On 12 August 2017, he was substituted on for Mark Yeates in the 81st minute of a 2–2 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge to appear for the first time in his second spell with the club.[15] He gave Eastleigh the lead in a dramatic 3–3 draw with FC Halifax Town to score his first goal back for the club[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] Matthews' performances were rewarded when he was awarded with the Player of the Season award for Eastleigh.[19]

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.[3][20] 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.[21]

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.[22] He also came off the bench in both the play-off quarter-final victory over Wrexham[23] and the semi final defeat to Salford City where Matthews had a penalty saved by Salford goalkeeper Chris Neal in the shootout.[24]

At the end of the 2019–20 season, Matthews was released by Bristol Rovers.[25]

Crawley Town

Matthews signed for Crawley Town on a two-year deal in the summer of 2020.[26] He made his debut for Crawley Town on 19 September 2020 in a 1–0 League Two victory over Scunthorpe United.[27]

Career statistics
As of match played 10 January 2021
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Bournemouth 2016–17[10] Premier League 0000000000
Poole Town (loan) 2014–15[28] Southern League Division One 0010—0010
Braintree Town (loan) 2016–17[10] National League 11120—00132
Eastleigh (loan) 2016–17[10] National League 13300—00133
Eastleigh (loan) 2017–18[29] National League 39600—00396
Bristol Rovers 2018–19[30] League One 16010205[lower-alpha 1]0240
2019–20[31] League One 0000000000
Total 160102050240
Eastleigh (loan) 2018–19[30] National League 8000—2[lower-alpha 2]0100
Crawley Town 2020–21[32] League Two 16110001[lower-alpha 1]0181
Career total 1031150208011811
  1. Appearance(s) in EFL Trophy
  2. Appearance(s) in National League play-offs

References
  1. "Notification of shirt numbers: Bristol Rovers" (PDF). English Football League. p. 11. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  2. "Sam Matthews – Midfielder". Bristol Rovers F.C. 3 August 2018. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  3. "Bristol Rovers snap up former Cherries youngster Sam Matthews". Bournemouth Echo. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  4. "Rovers Tie Up Deal For AFC Bournemouth Product Sam Matthews". www.bristolrovers.co.uk. 6 June 2018.
  5. "FA Cup: Poole Town boss Tom Killick saddened by Sam Matthews injury". www.bournemouthecho.co.uk. 14 September 2014.
  6. "AFC Bournemouth's Brandon Goodship and Sam Matthews join Braintree Town". BBC Sport. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  7. "Guiseley 0–0 Braintree Town". BBC Sport. 3 September 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  8. "Braintree Town 1–4 Gateshead". BBC Sport. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  9. "Dover Athletic 6–1 Braintree Town". BBC Sport. 22 October 2016.
  10. "Games played by Samuel Matthews in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  11. "Eastleigh:Sam Matthews and Ben Close join National League Club on loan". BBC Sport. 31 January 2017.
  12. "Guiseley 1–1 Eastleigh". 11 February 2017.
  13. "Torquay United 2–3 Eastleigh". BBC Sport. 21 March 2017.
  14. "Sam Matthews:Eastleigh re-sign Bournemouth Midfielder on Loan". BBC Sport. 8 August 2017.
  15. "Eastleigh 2–2 Dagenham & Redbridge". BBC Sport. 12 August 2017.
  16. "FC Halifax Town 3–3 Eastleigh". BBC Sport. 25 November 2017.
  17. "Eastleigh extend Matthews Loan". www.afcb.co.uk. 9 January 2018.
  18. "Solihull Moors 1–4 Eastleigh". 28 April 2018.
  19. "Matthews Moves On Up As Bristol Rovers Win The Race". www.thenationalleague.org.uk.
  20. "Sam Matthews: Bristol Rovers to sign AFC Bournemouth midfielder". BBC Sport. 6 June 2018.
  21. "Peterborough United 2–1 Bristol Rovers". BBC Sport. 4 August 2018.
  22. "Sam Matthews Returns to Eastleigh On Loan". www.bristolrovers.co.uk. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  23. "Wrexham 0–1 Eastleigh". BBC Sport. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  24. "Salford City 1–1 Eastleigh (Salford City win 4–3 on penalties)". BBC Sport. 5 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  25. "Retained List Announced". www.bristolrovers.co.uk. Bristol Rovers F.C. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  26. Dunford, Mark (18 June 2020). "Former Bournemouth and Bristol Rovers midfielder signs for Crawley Town". Crawley & Horley Observer. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  27. Dunford, Mark (19 September 2020). "Crawley Town midfielder says winning goal against Scunthorpe was 'the football we want to be playing'". Crawley & Horley Observer. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  28. "Sam Matthews Profile – Aylesbury United FC". Aylesbury United F.C. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  29. "Games played by Samuel Matthews in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  30. "Games played by Samuel Matthews in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  31. "Games played by Samuel Matthews in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  32. "Games played by Samuel Matthews in 2020/2021". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
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