Position : Centre half
Played : 1988-89
Appearances : 14
Goals : 2
The replacement for Dave Sutton when he was forced to retire was ironically his 35- year old former defensive partner at Huddersfield. Paul began his career at Bolton to whom he was a magnificent servant playing 445 games ( scoring a decent 38 goals) and making the England squad in 1977 though he didn’t actually win a cap. When Bolton went down to the Third Division in 1983 he transferred to newly-promoted Huddersfield and played there for two and a bit seasons before transferring to Oldham in 1986. After a year or so at Boundary Park he moved on to Blackpool. He was released in the summer of 1988 and had been playing in Ireland when he got the call from Bergara.
His signing was announced to me by the Stockport-supporting colleague at work with the words “you’re really scraping the barrel now” but he actually went to the game where Paul made his debut (at home to Tranmere) and said afterwards “Well I thought your new signing put “Lead-Boots” (Tranmere’s cumbersome striker Jim Steel) in his pocket !”. He was right; it was an excellent debut. Paul was understandably short of pace but read the game beautifully and didn’t put a foot wrong. He won us another game at home to Scarborough single-handedly with two headed goals from corners as my mate cruelly observed “with different bald patches”.
Paul was another to join the exodus of players to Bergara’s Stockport mainly as a coach but he did play another 25 League games for them before moving on to Hinckley Athletic. Paul still works in football scouting for various teams and coaching in China.
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