Paul Richardson

Paul Richardson

Born 7 November 1962 (Age 30 at debut)

Position: Midfielder

(Diamonds player #27)

Total appearances 53 – 5 goals

(38 League, 6 FA Cup, 1 FA Trophy, 6 League Cup, 2 Hillier Senior Cup)

Debut:

21 August 1993 (Home Clevedon Town)

Final game:

28 January 1995 (Away Cheltenham Town)

Midfielder Paul was playing for non-league Nuneaton Borough when he was spotted by new Derby County manager Arthur Cox in 1984, and given a contract at the Baseball Ground. With the Rams then playing in Division Three, he made 14 appearances, but suffered a serious illness midway through the season which was to end his professional career. He became an engineer, but after a gap of several years, he made a successful comeback into non-league football with Kettering Town in 1988, spending a brief loan spell at Boston United in 1990. In the summer of 1990, Paul joined Barnet for a £17,000 transfer fee and was a member of their Conference title winning side of the 1990/1991 season. He left in May 1991 to return to Boston United, and after a single season at York Street, joined the newly formed Dagenham & Redbridge in a £50,000 deal which took Paul Cavell and himself to Victoria Road. He played in the Daggers first ever game after their merger, scoring their first ever goal in a 2-0 win at Merthyr Tydfil on 22 August 1992. Paul was signed from Dagenham Redbridge in July 1993 before the start of Diamonds second season and helped the club to gain promotion from the Southern League Midland Division. He also had a spell as team captain. After 44 appearances and missing just one game in the 1993/1994 season, he picked up a serious injury in the first half of the game against Bridgnorth Town on 8 March 1994, missing the remainder of the season. After some nine months out of the game, he returned to the Diamonds side in the Southern League Premier Division, but further injuries limited him to just a further 9 games. This time, there was no way out of retirement and he accepted a role as the Diamonds reserve team coach at the end of the 1994-95 season.

Appearances

1993/1994

1994/1995