PAUL WILSON 

Date and Place of Birth 2nd August 1968 - Bradford   Transfers to and from Burnley from HALIFAX TOWN - 1st February 1993 (£90,000) to YORK CITY - 6th October 1994 (£20,000)   First and last Burnley Games SWANSEA CITY (a) - 5th February 1993   BRISTOL ROVERS - 19th March 1994   Other Clubs HUDDERSFIELD TOWN, NORWICH CITY, NORTHAMPTON TOWN, HALIFAX TOWN ---------------------------------------- YORK CITY, SCUNTHORPE UNITED, CAMBRIDGE UNITED

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Manager Jimmy Mullen sprung something of a surprise in February 1993 when he signed left back Paul Wilson from Halifax Town.

Joe Jakub had been playing in that position regularly and there was no suggestion of any change to be made despite Jakub having passed his 36th birthday. But Mullen swooped for a player who was plying his trade in the bottom division.

Bradford born Wilson had started his career with Huddersfield Town and was just seventeen when he got his first call into the first team for a league game in March 1986, coming in for Ian Bray, another player who was to subsequently play for Burnley.

He went on to play fifteen league games for his first club, but in the summer of 1987, having turned in some impressive performances, he got a move to Norwich who paid £30,000 for his services.

His stay at Carrow Road was short lived and unsuccessful. Manager Ken Brown, having signed him, lost his job just months later and new boss Dave Stringer quickly allowed him to move on again. Wilson had been with Norwich for just seven months when he signed on loan for Northampton, making the move a permanent one in the summer with Norwich getting back what they'd paid for him.

He hadn't figured at all in Norwich's first team but over the next four years he very much established himself at Northampton, making nearly 170 appearances before being transferred again for £30,000, this time to Halifax in the summer of 1991.

He was a first team regular at Halifax for a season and a half, and such were his performances that Mullen and Burnley paid £90,000 to bring him to Turf Moor where he immediately displaced Jakub at left back.

He enjoyed a very impressive debut at Swansea and kept his place for the remainder of the season. However, the start of the 1993/94 season, one which would see us promoted via a play off win against Stockport at Wembley, saw him out of the side, with Les Thompson, surprisingly, named ahead of him.

Thompson had signed in the previous summer from Maidstone but had hardly played. He wasn't expected to be in the first team in this season either but became the regular left back which meant Wilson hardly played.

He had a short spell back in the team in the second half of the season when Thompson was injured but by the time the play offs came round he was very much on the outside.

Even with Thompson gone, there was no sign of a return in 1994/95 with Chris Vinnicombe having signed. He didn't figure at all and in October 1994 decided it was time to move on and signed for York in a £20,000 seal.

And so began a few years on the move. He played out the rest of the season with York but then signed for Scunthorpe ahead of the 1995/96 season. He was a regular there for most of the time but as the  1996/97 season, his second at Glanford Park, drew to a close he was loaned out to Cambridge and at the end of the season he made it a permanent move.

The 1997/98 season proved to be his last in league football with his last league appearance coming on 7th February 1998. He played the full game as Cambridge beat Doncaster 2-1.

There was to be just a season in non-league football with Rushden & Diamonds before he hung up his boots at the age of 30.

He certainly won't be remembered as one of our better signings and probably that debut at Swansea was as good as it got for Wilson at Burnley. In total he played just 31 league games for us and when he did move on we'd made a £70,000 loss on him.