Paul Wilkinson (footballer)

Paul Wilkinson

Personal information
Full name	Paul Wilkinson
Date of birth	(1964-10-30) 30 October 1964
Place of birth	Louth, Lincolnshire, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current team	Grimsby Town (Assistant Manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1982–1985	Grimsby Town	87	(33)
1985–1987	Everton	42	(16)
1987–1988	Nottingham Forest	43	(8)
1988–1991	Watford	155	(56)
1991–1996	Middlesbrough	202	(65)
1995	→ Oldham Athletic (loan)	5	(2)
1995	→ Watford (loan)	4	(0)
1996	→ Luton Town (loan)	3	(0)
1996–1997	Barnsley	55	(11)
1997–1998	Millwall	35	(3)
1998–2000	Northampton Town	19	(1)
Total		650	(196)
National team
1985–1986	England U21	4	(1)
Teams managed
2000–2001	Leeds United (Youth Team)
2001–2003	Grimsby Town (Reserve Team)
2003–2012	Cardiff City (Reserve Team)
2017	Northampton Town (Caretaker Manager)
2018	Grimsby Town (Caretaker Manager)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Paul Wilkinson (born 30 October 1964) is an English former professional footballer and coach, most recently employed as assistant manager of EFL League Two side Grimsby Town.

Wilkinson had an 18-year professional playing career that saw make over 650 senior appearances and score more than 150 goals. Since retiring as a player in 2000 he has held a number of development and assistant coaching positions.

Playing career

Wilkinson started his career with Grimsby Town before moving to Everton in March 1985.

At this time he won caps for the England under-21 team. During the 1986–87 season he made 32 appearances and scored 12 goals, as Everton won the Football League First Division championship. He also scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 League Cup second round second leg victory over Newport County in October 1986.^[1]

After a short spell at Nottingham Forest he went on to play over 150 league games for Watford between 1988 and 1991.

Wilkinson played more than 200 times for Middlesbrough between 1991 and 1996, his most successful season being his first, in which he scored 24 goals. In the final minutes of the last league game of the season at Wolverhampton Wanderers, he scored a last minute winner to secure Middlesbrough's automatic promotion to the new FA Premier League. He was also the scorer of the club's first Premier League goal, with a 63rd minute consolation strike in a 2-1 defeat at Coventry City on the opening day of the season.^[2]

Middlesbrough spent just one season in the top tier, and by the time they won promotion again two years later, Wilkinson was no longer a regular player.^[3]

In 1997, partnering former Middlesbrough teammate John Hendrie in attack, Wilkinson helped Barnsley reach the Premier League, scoring one of the goals in the game against Bradford City at Oakwell that sealed their automatic promotion. He finished his playing career at Millwall and Northampton Town.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing he moved into coaching by taking over as the youth team manager at Leeds United before moving on to become reserve team manager at Grimsby Town and then Cardiff City in October 2003, where he was brought in by manager Lennie Lawrence.^[4] In 2012 he moved onto Sheffield Wednesday. He took a position as a coach at the Norwich City academy in October 2014. In 2016 he was appointed assistant manager at Northampton Town under Robert Page.^[5]

In April 2017 Wilkinson was appointed assistant manager at Grimsby alongside incoming manager Russell Slade.^[6] After Slade was sacked in February 2018, Wilkinson was appointed caretaker manager.^[7] Wilkinson lost all three of his games in charge of Grimsby and reverted to his role as assistant manager following the appointment of Michael Jolley as Slade's replacement.^[8]

On 11 May 2018 Wilkinson left Grimsby Town. ^[9]

References

External links

• Paul Wilkinson at Soccerbase