Former Forest Green goalkeeper Sam Russell is set to don his gloves for the final hurrah at Shortwood United on Wednesday.
Russell,41, now Rovers’ academy coach and young Lionesses lead coach for Gloucestershire, will appear for Shortwood United against the club he served so spectacularly in two spells, spanning a 580-game professional career.
“I never properly retired and it will be nice to sign off officially from playing against Forest Green,” revealed Russell. “I plan to play 20 to thirty minutes tops and after the game I’ll be stiff, but an ice cold beer will be followed by an ice bath.”
Following a chance conversation, Russell revealed his fond farewell came out of the blue: “Moodz (Andrew Moody) Shortwood’s goalkeeper coach asked me to come up and help with the warm-ups and then asked me if I wanted to play.
“I’m good friends with Scrivs (Jason Scrivens) so thought I might as well have a few minutes.”
And the Forest Green icon anticipates the night to be an emotional one: “My daughter who is six has never seen me play and my parents are coming from my hometown of Middlesbrough to watch, so that will be great and it will be nice to say thanks to all the FGR fans for their backing over the years.”
Rolling back the years, Russell is hoping to have his old number 23 on his back. “As this will be my final game I want to get the shirt signed and framed by both teams and also get my gloves signed and raffled off to help Shortwood raise funds.”
And is Russell expecting a busy night between the sticks? “I certainly do – Rovers have some excellent players and have been working hard over pre-season, so there’s no pressure on Shortwood and they’ll give everything.”
The ‘keeper began his career at his hometown team Middlesbrough, signing a professional contract in the year 2000 after progressing through their youth system.
Having been sent out on loan to various sides including Gateshead, Darlington and Scunthorpe, he made a permanent switch to Darlington ahead of the 2004/05 season.
During his time with the Quakers he made over 100 appearances before spending two seasons at Rochdale. He dropped into the non-league game in 2009, signing for Wrexham, but returned to Darlington a year later to help them win the FA Trophy at Wembley under Mark Cooper.
When financial issues hit Darlo he secured his first move to FGR under David Hockaday, where his excellent performances saw him make144 consecutive appearances.
In his second spell at the New Lawn, Russell made 56 appearances for Forest Green during the 2016-17 season as they won promotion to the Football League for the first time after beating Tranmere in the National League play-off final at Wembley. He latterly moved to Grimsby Town where he combined dual roles as goalkeeper and coach before returning to Forest Green in 2022 to work with the academy.
Russell is also founder and owner of UNION GK and SR23 goalkeeping.
