‘I’ll remember this for ever’: Exeter’s Jay Stansfield honours his late father

This Saturday, 10 September, would have been Adam Stansfield’s 44th birthday. Stansfield died of bowel cancer aged 31 while contracted to Exeter City but he never feels too far away. Exeter renamed a stand at St James Park in his honour and in a thoroughfare at the club’s Cliff Hill training base there is something of a shrine to the former striker: a “Stansfield 9” red-and-white-striped home shirt on a bust above a pair of his boots, beside pictures, a programme, team sheets and shirts from his three professional clubs: Yeovil, Hereford and Exeter. Since his tragic passing, Exeter staff do not recall a game where supporters have not proudly sung Stansfield’s name.

These days they have another Stansfield to cheer and cherish. Stansfield’s name and legacy lives on through the Adam Stansfield Foundation and in the game via his eldest son, Jay, also a striker, who last week rejoined his boyhood club on loan from Fulham whom he signed for as a 16-year-old. His new manager, Matt Taylor, played alongside Jay’s dad for three years at Exeter, who saw fit to bring the No 9 shirt out of retirement for Jay to wear. The transfer announcement video went viral, attracting more than 3.2m views. Jay is still wading through messages of support from all over the world. “My phone kept pinging,” the 19-year-old says. “It is polite to reply and say thank you.”

His debut last weekend inevitably stirred memories and afterwards a tearful Jay applauded fans looking on from the stand named after his father. His family were boardroom guests. “It was emotional,” Jay says. “It hit me when I got out of my car with my two brothers. The next thing I hear is people singing as I’m walking into the ground. All they were singing was: ‘Sing a song for