Sam Kelly (footballer)

Sam Kelly

Personal information
Full name	Sam Alexander Kelly [1]
Date of birth	(1993-10-21) 21 October 1993 (age 30) [2]
Place of birth	Huntingdon, England [2]
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) [3]
Position(s)	Winger, Attacking midfielder
Youth career
	Cambridge United
2010–2012	Norwich City
2012–2013	Everton
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2014	Cambridge City	3	(0)
2014–2015	Norwich City	0	(0)
2015–2017	Port Vale	49	(3)
2017–2018	Grimsby Town	12	(0)
2018–2019	Hamilton Academical	6	(0)
2019	Braintree Town	5	(1)
2019	Billericay Town	3	(0)
2019–2021	King's Lynn Town	24	(0)
Total		102	(4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 00:00, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Sam Alexander Kelly (born 21 October 1993) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger.

He played for Cambridge United, Norwich City, Everton, and Cambridge City, before he found regular first-team football in the English Football League with Port Vale in the 2015–16 and 2016–17 campaigns. He joined Grimsby Town in May 2017. He stayed with the club for one season before he signed with Scottish Premiership side Hamilton Academical in June 2018. He returned to English non-League football with Braintree Town, Billericay Town and King's Lynn Town in 2019. He helped King's Lynn to win the National League North title in the 2019–20 season.

Career

Early career

Kelly was born in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and was attached to Cambridge United as a youth. ^[4] He joined the Norwich City Academy in July 2010. ^[5] He was released in March 2012 and joined the Everton Academy, before he left Everton in June 2013. ^[5] He had a trial at Rangers in September 2013, but manager Ally McCoist was unable to offer him a contract due to financial restrictions. ^[5] He joined Cambridge City of the Southern League Premier Division in February 2014. ^[6] He returned to play for the Norwich under-21 side in the 2014–15 season. ^[5]

Port Vale

Kelly signed a two-year contract with League One side Port Vale in June 2015. ^[7] He made his debut in the Football League on 8 August in a 0–0 draw with rivals Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road. ^[8] After five further appearances he went three months without playing a game as Enoch Andoh, Sam Foley and Colin Daniel were preferred on the left-wing, before marking his return to the first-team with a goal and an assist in a 3–2 win over Chesterfield at Vale Park on 21 November. ^[9] For his performance he was named on the Football League Paper's team of the week. ^[10] He got the chance to establish himself in the first-team following a long-term injury to Andoh, and though initially inconsistent he managed to impress manager Rob Page who saw "glimpses" of his "terrific talent" by beating three defenders to score the only goal of the game against Bury on 28 December. ^[11] He came off the bench against Coventry City on 7 February and scored another "sensational" goal to secure a 1–1 draw; ^[12] this goal won him the club's Goal of the Season award. ^[13]

Kelly fell out of the first-team picture under new manager Bruno Ribeiro and had to wait until the end of October for his first league start of the 2016–17 season. ^[14] He then went on a run of seven consecutive starts. ^[15] He was released by new manager Michael Brown following the club's relegation in May 2017. ^[16]

Grimsby Town

On 31 May 2017, Kelly signed a two-year contract with League Two side Grimsby Town on a free transfer. ^[17] He made 12 appearances throughout the 2017–18 campaign, of which only one came after Michael Jolley replaced Russell Slade as manager, as the "Mariners" posted an 18th-place finish. ^[18] On 21 June 2018, Kelly left Blundell Park after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent. ^[19]

Hamilton Academical

On 25 June 2018, Kelly signed for Scottish Premiership club Hamilton Academical. ^[20] He said that he was convinced to join the club after listening to manager Martin Canning's passion and ambition. ^[21] However, he made only nine appearances for the "Accies" in the first half of the 2018–19 season before leaving New Douglas Park in January 2019. ^[22]

Non-League

On 7 February 2019, Kelly joined National League side Braintree Town. ^[23] He scored one goal in five matches for the "Iron" before he moved on to National League South side Billericay Town the following month. He ended the 2018–19 campaign with three appearances for "Ricay".

On 1 June 2019, he signed with newly-promoted National League North side King's Lynn Town; "Linnets" manager Ian Culverhouse said Kelly was "a hell of a signing for this football club". ^{[24] [25]} He struggled for form at the start of the 2019–20 season, before improving enough to provide the assists for both of Town's goals in a 2–1 victory at Southport on 16 November. ^[26] King's Lynn went on to win promotion as champions of the National League North after the league table was decided on points per game due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. ^[27] He was limited to just nine appearances in the 2020–21 season and was released at the end of June. ^{[28] [29]}

Style of play

Kelly is a pacey left-winger who can also play behind the striker . ^{[30] [31]}

Personal life

He is the younger brother of Ross and Danny Kelly. ^[5]

Career statistics

As of match played 9 February 2021

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Cambridge City	2013–14 [32]	Southern League Premier	3	0	0	0	0	0	2 [lower-alpha 1]	0	5	0
Norwich City	2014–15 [33]	Championship	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Port Vale	2015–16 [34]	League One	28	3	1	0	2	0	0	0	31	3
	2016–17 [35]	League One	21	0	3	0	1	0	1 [lower-alpha 2]	0	26	0
	Total		49	3	4	0	3	0	1	0	57	3
Grimsby Town	2017–18 [36]	League Two	8	0	0	0	1	0	3 [lower-alpha 2]	0	12	0
Hamilton Academical	2018–19 [37]	Scottish Premiership	6	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	9	0
Braintree Town	2018–19 [28]	National League	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
Billericay Town	2018–19 [28]	National League South	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
King's Lynn Town	2019–20 [28]	National League North	24	0	1	0	0	0	1 [lower-alpha 3]	1	26	1
	2020–21 [28]	National League	8	0	0	0	0	0	1 [lower-alpha 3]	0	9	0
	Total		32	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	35	1
Career total			106	4	5	0	7	0	8	1	124	5

1. Appearances in the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup
2. Appearance/s in the EFL Trophy
3. Appearance(s) in the FA Trophy

Honours

King's Lynn Town

• National League North: 2019–20 ^[27]

References

1. "Clubs submit retained and released lists". Premier League. 7 June 2013. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
2. "FootballSquads - Port Vale - 2016/2017". www.footballsquads.co.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
3. "Port Vale FC Player Profiles". Port Vale F.C. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
4. Cuffley, David (21 March 2012). "Everton sign Sam Kelly after Norwich City exit". The Pink 'Un. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
5. "Profile". ex-canaries.co.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
6. "Sam Kelly signs for City". cambridgecityfc.com. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
7. "Port Vale: Remie Streete and Sam Kelly sign two-year contracts". BBC Sport . 15 June 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
8. "Crewe Alexandra 0 - 0 Port Vale". BBC Sport . 8 August 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
9. "Winger Sam Kelly happy with performance after netting in home win". The Sentinel . 23 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
10. Baggaley, Mike (24 November 2015). "Port Vale and Stoke City youngsters named in Football League Paper's team of the week". The Sentinel . Retrieved 24 November 2015.
11. Baggaley, Mike (3 January 2016). "Five talking points for the New Year". The Sentinel . Retrieved 3 January 2016.
12. Baggaley, Mike (7 February 2016). "Port Vale 1, Coventry 1: Rob Page hails performance and sensational goal from Sam Kelly". The Sentinel. Retrieved 8 February 2016.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
13. Baggaley, Mike (17 May 2016). "Rob Page not in talks with Northampton despite being tipped for job". The Sentinel . Retrieved 17 May 2016.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
14. Baggaey, Mike (8 November 2016). "Doncaster v Port Vale: Sam Kelly keen to stay in Trophy side". Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
15. Baggaley, Mike (29 November 2016). "Sam Kelly hopeful of new deal at Port Vale". Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
16. "Port Vale: Thirteen senior players leave club after relegation to League Two". BBC Sport. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
17. Wood, Liam; Green, Trevor (31 May 2017). "Grimsby Town welcome new signing Sam Kelly to Blundell Park". Grimsby Telegraph. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
18. Wood, Liam (21 June 2018). "Grimsby Town confirm departure of midfielder Sam Kelly". Grimsby Telegraph. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
19. "Kelly Departs". Grimsby Town F.C. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
20. "Hamilton Academical: Martin Canning boosts squad with five players joining". BBC Sport. 25 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
21. McGilvray, Andy (12 July 2018). "Sam Kelly says manager Martin Canning sold him on a move to Hamilton". Daily Record. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
22. "Player Departures « Hamilton Academical Football Club". www.hamiltonacciesfc.co.uk. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
23. "The Braintree Town FC website". www.braintreetownfc.org.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
24. Plummer, Greg (1 June 2019). "King's Lynn Town Football Club make first three signings of the summer". Lynn News. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
25. Plummer, Greg (2 June 2019). "Linnets boss Ian Culverhouse excited by club's new signings". Lynn News. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
26. Plummer, Greg (22 November 2019). ""We are like a little family and there isn't a bad egg in the squad," - Sam Kelly on the dressing room at King's Lynn Town". Lynn News. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
27. "Barrow promoted back to English Football League after National League vote". BBC Sport. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
28. Sam Kelly at Soccerway
29. Webb, Allister (4 June 2021). "King's Lynn Town issue retained list for new campaign". Lynn News. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
30. Baggaley, Mike (31 December 2015). "Rob Page challenges Sam Kelly to unleash talent". The Sentinel . Retrieved 31 December 2015.
31. Plummer, Greg (16 June 2019). "Ambitious midfielder excited by new career challenge with King's Lynn Town". Lynn News. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
32. Appearances Cambridge City F.C. website
33. "Games played by Sam Kelly in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
34. "Games played by Sam Kelly in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
35. "Games played by Sam Kelly in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
36. "Games played by Sam Kelly in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
37. "Games played by Sam Kelly in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 31 May 2017.