Paul Connor (footballer)

Paul Connor

Personal information
Date of birth	(1979-01-12) 12 January 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Bishop Auckland, England
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	West Auckland Town
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–1999	Middlesbrough	0	(0)
1997	→ Gateshead (loan)	5	(3)
1998	→ Hartlepool United (loan)	6	(0)
1999	→ Stoke City (loan)	3	(2)
1999–2001	Stoke City	33	(5)
2000–2001	→ Cambridge United (loan)	13	(5)
2001–2004	Rochdale	94	(29)
2004–2006	Swansea City	65	(16)
2006–2007	Leyton Orient	34	(7)
2007–2009	Cheltenham Town	79	(7)
2009–2010	Lincoln City	15	(0)
2010–2011	Mansfield Town	52	(15)
2011–2013	Gainsborough Trinity	48	(11)
2013–2017	Shildon
2017–	West Auckland Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23:25, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Paul Connor (born 12 January 1979) is an English footballer who plays for West Auckland Town.

Career

He was signed by Middlesbrough straight after he left school. With his chances of first team football at the Riverside Stadium very scarce, he went on loan to Gateshead, Hartlepool United for a month and then to Stoke where he made 3 appearances. After Middlesbrough released him, Stoke did not hesitate to sign him permanently.

Whilst at Stoke he went on loan to Cambridge United where he scored 5 goals in 14 games. After his time at Stoke he moved to Rochdale, who paid a club record (still standing as of June 2017) fee of £150,000 ^[1] to bring him to Spotland Stadium. He was an immediate success taking Rochdale to the brink of the play-offs with his goals before an unfortunately-timed injury. This prevented him from playing more than a marginal role the following season when Dale did make the play-offs. He managed to shake off the injury for the 2002–03 season when he played a key role in Dale's run to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup.

With the end of his contract looming Connor was sold just before transfer deadline day in March 2004 for just £35,000 to Swansea City despite Dale's precarious League position. Connor proved to be a hardworking, skilful striker, forging effective partnerships with both Lee Trundle and Kevin Nugent.

Often maligned for basically not being Trundle, Paul scored a number of very important goals with some excellent finishes. The second top goal scorer in the 2004–05 season with 12 finishes in 44 appearances was 3 or 4 better than their top scorers totals for a number of seasons during the 1990s.

In January 2006, he had fallen down the pecking order at the Liberty Stadium, and so the Leyton Orient manager, Martin Ling, signed him for £40,000. He made 34 appearances, scoring 7 goals.

Cheltenham Town

On 15 January 2007 he signed for Cheltenham Town for an initial fee £20,000 with a further £5,000 payable if the Robins avoided relegation from League One that season. ^[2] He met up with his new teammates for the first time just two hours before making his debut in the 1–1 home draw with Scunthorpe United on 16 January 2007 ^[3] before netting his first goal for the club in the 2–1 home victory over his former club Swansea City on 3 February 2007. Having helped the club avoid relegation, Connor was rewarded by being allocated the number 9 shirt for the 2007–2008 season: the first time he had been given a squad number lower than 16. ^[4] However, his preparations for the season were disrupted as he was forced to miss most of the preparation with an ankle injury suffered during pre-season training in Germany. ^[5] Despite a number of hard working performances, Connor found the goals hard to come by ^[6] and went almost eleven months between his first and second league goals for the club; the second coming in the 1–0 home victory over Port Vale on 2 January 2008 ^[7] and he managed just four league goals from 26 starts and a further 13 substitute appearances that season. He again struggled on the goalscoring front in the 2008–2009 season and in January 2009, Connor was made available for transfer by Town manager Martin Allen ^[8] but he forced his way back into the club's starting eleven towards the end of the season. Having scored just two league goals all season, he was released by the club at the end of the season with manager Martin Allen commenting that "at this present moment in time we cannot offer him a new deal. I have also informed him that the door is still open but I have to manage my budget very carefully and have to look at other options before we can offer him a new deal". ^[9]

Lincoln City

Connor commenced the 2009–2010 season by training with Cheltenham Town ^[10] before joining Lincoln City on trial. ^[11] He agreed a one-year contract with the Sincil Bank based club on 21 July 2009. ^[12] He debuted for the club in the 1–0 home victory over Barnet on 8 August 2009 but a thigh strain picked up in training ^[13] saw him miss half of the August fixtures whilst a knee injury sustained in the 3–0 home victory over Darlington on 5 September 2009 kept him on the sidelines for almost five months before returning to the first team squad for the game with Bradford City on 23 January 2010 ^[14] for which he was an unused substitute. He then struggled to make the starting eleven, starting only five games in the remainder of the season and he departed Sincil Bank on 5 May 2010 with his contract cancelled by mutual consent. ^[15]

Mansfield Town

On 28 July 2010 he joined Mansfield Town on a one-year contract with the club's supporters group The 12th Stag making a contribution to his wages. ^[16] Connor made an immediate impact scoring two goals on his debut.

Gainsborough Trinity

On 1 December 2011, Connor joined Gainsborough Trinity on a part-time basis; a move designed to allow him to explore other alternatives after football whilst also spending more time with his young family. ^[17]

In June 2017 he was appointed player-coach at West Auckland Town. ^[18]

Career statistics

Source: ^[19]

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other [A]		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Middlesbrough	1997–98	First Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gateshead (loan)	1997–98	Conference National	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3
Hartlepool United (loan)	1997–98	Third Division	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
Stoke City	1998–99	Second Division	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2
	1999–2000	Second Division	26	5	1	0	4	1	5	0	36	6
	2000–01	Second Division	7	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	9	2
	Total		36	7	1	0	6	3	5	0	48	10
Cambridge United (loan)	2000–01	Second Division	13	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	14	5
Rochdale	2000–01	Third Division	14	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	10
	2001–02	Third Division	19	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	23	1
	2002–03	Third Division	39	12	5	3	1	0	1	0	46	15
	2003–04	Third Division	22	5	1	0	1	0	0	0	24	5
	Total		94	29	8	3	3	0	1	0	107	31
Swansea City	2003–04	Third Division	12	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	5
	2004–05	League Two	40	10	5	3	0	0	1	0	46	13
	2005–06	League One	13	1	1	0	1	0	2	1	17	2
	Total		65	16	6	3	1	0	3	1	75	18
Leyton Orient	2005–06	League One	16	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	16	5
	2007–08	League One	18	2	3	0	1	0	1	0	23	2
	Total		34	7	3	0	1	0	1	0	39	7
Cheltenham Town	2006–07	League One	15	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	1
	2007–08	League One	39	4	2	0	1	0	1	1	43	5
	2008–09	League One	25	2	4	0	2	0	1	0	32	2
	Total		79	7	6	0	3	0	2	1	90	8
Lincoln City	2009–10	League Two	15	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	17	0
Mansfield Town	2010–11	Conference National	40	11	1	0	0	0	0	0	40	11
Career Total			384	85	26	7	14	3	13	2	437	97

A.  ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Football League play-offs, FA Trophy, and Football League Trophy.

References

1. "Profile and stats at vitalfootball". Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
2. "Robins sign Paul Connor". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 15 January 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
3. "Paul Connor on board". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
4. "Connor proud to be a No.9". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 2 July 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
5. "Connor out for four to six weeks". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 14 July 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
6. "Connor ready to face former club". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
7. "Match report: Cheltenham Town 1 Port Vale 0". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 2 January 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
8. "Martin's message". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 22 January 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
9. "Martin's message". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
10. "Training gets out and about". Cheltenham Town F.C. Official Website. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
11. "Connor in on trial". Lincoln City F.C. Official Website. 7 July 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
12. "Connor agrees one-year deal". Lincoln City F.C. Official Website. 21 July 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
13. "Imps welcome trio back". Lincoln City F.C. Official Website. 27 August 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
14. "Imps v Bradford – Match preview". Lincoln City F.C. Official Website. 22 January 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
15. "Connor departs". Lincoln City F.C. Official Website. 5 May 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
16. "12th Stag funds new signing". Mansfield Town F.C. Official Website. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
17. "Connor makes decision to go part time". Mansfield Town F.C. Official Website. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
18. "The Management Team". West Auckland Town F.C. Official Website. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
19. Paul Connor at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

External links

• Paul Connor at Soccerbase
• Lincoln City F.C. Official Archive Profile