Laurel Lane Lamper wrote: ↑24 Feb 2025, 09:22
YeltzDoc wrote: ↑24 Feb 2025, 02:01
Post. Right at the very end and only for a couple of games.
At least that’s how I remember it.
LLL, or the STFC version, TRM, can no doubt corroborate or correct me if I’ve completely mis-remembered.
(And I hope I have…).
Only from memory but I think Paul was at Stourbr*dge when John Morris brought him back to The Grove for the 92/93 season. He stayed for a few seasons and scored 49 of his goals total in that spell including hat tricks in home games against Nuneaton and Cambridge
The "right at the end for a couple of games " you have in mind is that he made just the 2 starting appearances at the beginning of the 95/96 although he was on the bench several times
Paul joined us in Summer 1992 and spent the first half of the season with us before going back to you. He was certainly prolific, alongside Evran Wright (who scored 56 goals that season) and Toby Hall up front. We thrashed teams for fun, but also lost a few high-scoring games thanks to our consequent shortage of midfielders and a defence that was two years more elderly than when we won the League in 1991... It's still my very favourite season ever.
A couple of little asides...
PJ is, to the best of my knowledge, the only player to have scored a hat-trick both for and against Stourbr*dge in my lifetime. For us, he scored three in a 6-1 win against an abject Forest Green (whatever happened to them...?), having done likewise for Redditch in 1-4 defeat at Amblecote in our 1990-91 Midland Division Championship season. Needless to say it was our only home defeat that season.
Adrian Cooper moved from Halesowen to Stourbr*dge around the time Paul made the opposite journey. Both played in the League Cup semi-final against their former clubs that season, despite both being "Cup Tied" having played earlier in the comp for the 'other' club. I think registration rules were the same as for League games at the time, so cup-tying wasn't a thing in the League Cup.
Dennis Burke was a lunatic (in every sense!) keeper who played for Redditch and Hinckley. Frankly I'm surprised nobody remembers him, always good for a proper meltdown and a red card whenevr he played against us. Think Nathan Vaughan on steroids...
And finally, if you want to reminisce about PJ banging in goals in a red and white shirt, there's plenty to look back on here, particularly the first 10 minutes or so. It also includes lengthy highlights from both legs of the League Cup semi-final from about 1 hr 18 onwards...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gMYM_SQ7zg&t=565s
You're welcome!
