Sandy Pate

Alexander Montgomerie "Sandy" Pate (born 15 August 1944 in Lennoxtown, Scotland) is a retired footballer who spent the majority of his career at Mansfield Town. His position on the pitch was right-back.

Pate began his career at Scottish junior side Renfrew FC, and was signed by Watford in 1965. He had played as a right-winger in his younger days, but was converted into a right-back at Watford, where he remained a reserve behind player-manager Ken Furphy, a right-back himself.^[1]

In October 1967, Pate was signed by Mansfield Town, and immediately put into the side by manager Tommy Eggleston. On 26 February 1969, Pate was a member of the Mansfield side that picked up a shock 3–0 win against West Ham United in the fifth round of the FA Cup to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in the club's history.^[2]

Pate remained at Field Mill until 1978, and was a member of the Mansfield teams that won the Fourth and Third division titles in 1975 and 1977 respectively, before retiring from the game at the end of 1977-78, Mansfield's only season at the second tier of English football.

At the time of his retirement, Pate had made a club-record 479 first-team appearances for the club (413 of those in league competition^[3]). The record has since been broken by his teammate Rod Arnold, but Pate remains in second place on Mansfield's all-time appearance list. He still lives in the Mansfield area. Included in his 479 first team appearances is a near seven year, run of 366 consecutive appearances in all competitions. To this day Sandy still remains a loyal supporter of the club and still follows Mansfield both home and away and rightly so is still regarded a club legend.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2009, Pate was honoured by the club when the supporters' bar at the club's Field Mill ground was renamed the Sandy Pate Bar.^[4][5]