Past Players - Number 50 – Mick Stratford
Playing Seasons - 7Appearances - 324
Goals - 18
Mick Stratford was born on 16th March 1953 and joined the club on loan from Sutton United in late 1978. Although he returned to Sutton once his spell ended he would rejoin the next season, going on to become one of the most reliable players in the club's history.
He was involved in the thick of things, as the club became one of the best in the local area, reaching the last thirty-two of the F.A.Trophy and defeating many Isthmian Premier Division clubs during that time.
Following the resignation of Pat O'Connell in 1982 he was one of the few players that chose to remain, and became club Captain under the new tenure of Adrian Hill. The club continued to improve, and eventually gained promotion to the Isthmian Premier Division in 1984. Unfortunately, following our first season at that level, Hill decided to move to Croydon, and "Strats" went with him.
He became a qualified F.A. Coach, and was extremely fit, playing on for many years with Banstead Athletic, including season 1996/97 when they reached the Semi-Final of the F.A.Vase, despite him being 44 by that time! He became Assistant Manager of Epsom & Ewell briefly in 2003 under Barry Barnes, but he did not stay long and he subsequently moved on to Merstham, where he had great success as Coach under the Manager Mick Sullivan. In 2007/08 they won the Combined Counties League title, reached the Quarter-Final of the F.A. Vase, and won the Surrey Senior Cup for the first and only time in their history. Ironically, this was also the case in 1981 when he won it with us, scoring one of our goals that day in a 2-1 win over Woking at Sandy Lane.
RSS Feeds