Paul Donnelly (footballer)

Paul Michael Donnelly (born 16 February 1981) is an English former football player and coach.

For other people named Paul Donnelly, see Paul Donnelly (disambiguation).

Paul Donnelly
Personal information
Full name Paul Michael Donnelly[1]
Date of birth (1981-02-16) 16 February 1981[2]
Place of birth Newcastle-under-Lyme, England[2]
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[2]
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Port Vale
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2002 Port Vale 11 (0)
2002–2005 Stone Dominoes
2005–2008 Nantwich Town 95 (1)
2008 Witton Albion
2009–2011 Newcastle Town
2011–2012 Stafford Rangers
2012–2013 Kidsgrove Athletic
2013–2015 Leek Town
2015–2016 Kidsgrove Athletic
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

A defender, he played eleven games in the Football League for Port Vale between 1998 and 2002. Following this he played non-league football for Stone Dominoes until 2005, at which point he signed with Nantwich Town. Three years later he signed with Newcastle Town via Witton Albion. He moved on to Stafford Rangers in 2011, before joining Kidsgrove Athletic the following year. He signed with Leek Town in July 2013, before returning to Kidsgrove Athletic in May 2015. In June 2016, he returned to Leek Town as assistant manager to Anthony Danylyk, before following Danylyk to Belper Town 12-months later.

Playing career

Donnelly graduated through the Port Vale youth team,[3] and turned professional under Brian Horton. He made four First Division appearances in the 1999–2000 relegation season, and featured once in the Second Division in 2000–01, before he was released from Vale Park after playing eight league and cup games in 2001–02. He dropped out of the Football League in July 2002 to sign for Stone Dominoes of the North West Counties Football League. In his first season with the club they won promotion to the First Division as runners-up of the Second Division. He stayed for three years before joining Nantwich Town in 2005. With Nantwich he lifted the FA Vase in 2006 following a 3–1 win over Hillingdon Borough at St Andrew's. He also helped the club win promotion out of the Northern Premier League Division One South, following a penalty shoot-out win over Sheffield in the 2008 play-off final. They also won the Cheshire Senior Cup that same year after a penalty shoot-out victory over Altrincham. In all he played 95 games before joining Witton Albion three years later.

In December 2008 he signed with Newcastle Town.[4] He impressed at Town, winning the attention of Kidsgrove Athletic,[5] however the Newcastle captain turned down the chance to play at a higher level, instead choosing to stay with Town.[6] In 2009–10 his side won promotion to the Northern Premier League Division One South, after finishing top of the North West Counties Football League Premier Division. Town finished 24 points clear of second place New Mills. In 2010–11 he led Town to a second-place finish, though they lost 3–0 to Grantham Town in the play-off semi-finals.

In 2011, he joined Northern Premier League Premier Division side Stafford Rangers, whilst also working as an administrator at Staffordshire University.[7] He captained Rangers to a 16th-place finish in 2011–12. He left the club in May 2012.[8] Two months later, he signed with Kidsgrove Athletic.[9] He helped "Kiddy" to an 18th-place finish in the Northern Premier League Division One South in 2012–13. He signed with league rivals Leek Town in July 2013.[10] He helped the "Blues" to secure a play-off spot with a third-place finish in 2013–14, where they were knocked out by Belper Town at Harrison Park. They again reached the play-offs in 2014–15, losing to Sutton Coldfield Town in the final.[11]

Donnelley re-joined Kidsgrove Athletic in May 2015 after being signed by manager Peter Ward.[12] Kidsgrove finished in 15th place in 2015–16.

Coaching career

Donnelley joined Leek Town as manager Anthony Danylyk's assistant in May 2016.[13] In June 2017, he followed Danylyk to Leek's Northern Premier League Division One South rivals Belper Town.[14] The pair left the club five months later, citing a change in personal circumstances.[15]

Statistics

Source:[16]

Club Season Division League FA Cup Other Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Port Vale1999–2000First Division40000040
2000–01Second Division10000010
2001–02Second Division60002080
Total 1100020130

Honours
Stone Dominoes
Nantwich Town
Newcastle Town

References
  1. "Paul Donnelly". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  2. "FootballSquads - Port Vale - 2001/02". www.footballsquads.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  3. "Port Vale pen pictures". BBC Sport. 18 April 2001. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
  4. "Non-league football: Newcastle sign Donnelly". The Sentinel. 12 December 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  5. "Football: Newcastle in fight to keep star defender Donnelly". The Sentinel. 22 September 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  6. Harper, Chris (25 September 2009). "Non-league football: Castle cheer as skipper Donnelly stays put". The Sentinel. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  7. "Paul Donnelly returns for Rangers trip". Express & Star. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  8. "Rangers release four". NonLeagueDaily.com. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  9. "Plenty of New Faces at Kidsgrove". pitchero.com. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  10. "Blues looking strong as Caswell takes the wraps off new squad". Leek News. 10 July 2013. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  11. Hannah, Jim (2 May 2015). "Evo-Stik League: Leek Town suffer play-off heartache". The Sentinel. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  12. Hannah, Jim (30 May 2015). "Kidsgrove boss Peter Ward swoops for Leek Town duo". The Sentinel. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  13. Hannah, Jim (23 May 2016). "Evo-Stik League: Leek Town boss Ant Danylyk welcomes Paul Donnelly as his number two". Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  14. "Danylyk appointed new Belper manager". Belper News. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  15. "Nailers Management Team Depart". Pitchero Non-League. 12 November 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  16. Paul Donnelly at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
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