Paul Connor is guest of honour when Rochdale play Brackley on Tuesday 7th March, he played under Steve Parkin, John Hollins, Alan Buckley and Paul Simpson so will be relating some great memories of his time at Spotland in the early 2000’s.
Paul signed for Middlesbrough straight after he left school but with his chances of first team football at the Riverside Stadium scarce, he went out on loan to Gateshead, Hartlepool United for a month and Stoke City where he made 3 appearances then permanently.
Whilst at Stoke he went on loan to Cambridge United where he scored 5 goals in 14 games followed by moving to Rochdale, who paid a Club record fee of £150,000 to bring him to Spotland Stadium. He was an immediate success taking Rochdale to the brink of the play offs with his goals before an ill-timed injury, this preventing him from playing more than a marginal role the following season when Dale did make the play offs. He managed to shake off the injury for the 2002/3 season where he played a key role in Dale’s run to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup. With the end of his contract looming, he was sold just before transfer deadline day in March 2004 for just £35,000 to Swansea City despite Dale’s precarious League position.
At Dale, Paul became a bit of a legend, this article typical of the thoughts of most fans (Rochdale AFC.Com) That first season of Connor’s was probably as good as any player I’ve seen wearing a Dale shirt. When Paul Connor first signed for the Club, he was without doubt the best player in the whole wide world. He came to the Club after a search for a striker which had gone on almost for the duration of the 2000/1 season, but within days of the signing, it seemed that the £150,000 record transfer was money well spent. In signing Connor, we were obtaining a young tall striker, who had scored goals in higher divisions and was considered to be one of the real prospects in the game. Certainly, Stoke City were in no mood to let him go, and had it was clear that nothing less than a record transfer from ourselves would obtain the services after bid after bid were turned down by the Potteries club. But when he did eventually come to Spotland, as I said before, he came as the greatest player the world has ever seen. He scored in what seemed like every game, he got our first hat trick in donkey’s years, and every effort appeared to be a candidate for goal of the season. It was a stunning run of form, as Connor grabbed 10 goals in 14 games, with many of those goals coming from nothing at all. He’d formed a great partnership with Clive Platt, and he was simply untouchable. He’d ripped Carlisle United to pieces to the extent that he was brought off with half an hour to go so that he couldn’t inflict any more pain on the Cumbrians. The Cheltenham keeper will be forever having nightmares about him, and his goal against Plymouth at Spotland should have ensured promotion all on its own. Big things were expected for Connor for the 2001/2 season, where we looked to build on the previous campaign, and with a full season of Platt and Connor together, how could it possibly fail? Indeed, pre-season had seen goals scored by the hatful, with Connor alone carrying on from where he left off but it certainly did fail on a personal note for Connor, where after a slowish start to the season, he picked up a nasty injury which affected his game for much of the season. He ended that year with just one goal to his name from twenty two outings in the first team, though many of them were off the bench. Things looked better for Connor during the next year, when he managed 15 goals from what was almost a full season at the club. Whilst he wasn’t the all singing, all dancing, all scoring player we had seen in that first few games for the club, he had shown an ability to score goals, and his goal against Coventry (pictured below) rightfully earned him his fair share of coverage in the Sunday papers the day after. His final season had one or two moments to savour but the Paul Connor of that first season became nothing more than a distant memory. He had become a player who was too often looking for help from referees, and lacking that drive that he had shown that he was capable of on numerous occasions in the past.
He was eventually sold to Swansea City for £35,000 just two months before the end of the season when his contract expired. It was probably time for a move for both parties, as he had got a bit stale at Spotland. It was a controversial move as with Dale struggling near the foot of the table, it was felt that players should have been coming into Spotland rather than leaving. However, the move worked out for both parties. Dale did enough to stay up, and Connor regained his scoring touch, with five goals from twelve appearances for the Jacks.
Paul also played for Leyton Orient, Cheltenham Town, Lincoln City, Mansfield Town, Gainsborough Trinity, Shildon, West Auckland Town
Paul has turned his talents from the pitch to the treatment room, now using his expertise and skills in podiatry to support those battling cancer.