Paul Bastock

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Personal information
Paul Bastock
Full name	Paul Bastock
Date of birth	May 19, 1970 (age 36)
Place of birth	Leamington Spa, England
Height	5'11"
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	St Albans City
Number	1
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1989 1989 1989-1990 1990-1992 1992-2004 2004 2004 2004-	Cambridge United Sabah FA Fisher Athletic Kettering Town Boston United Scarborough Dagenham & Redbridge St Albans City	12 (0) - (-) - (-) - (-) 501 (0) 0 (0) 1 (0) 89 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 27, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Bastock, born May 19, 1970 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire is an English goalkeeper currently playing for Football Conference side St Albans City. He has played football for over 18 years, making over 600 league appearances for eight different clubs including Cambridge United, Boston United, Dagenham & Redbridge and St Albans City. He is widely considered as the best Boston United player of all time, as voted by the fans in a recent poll. He holds the all-time record for the most ever appearances for Boston United at 625 games in all competitions, although only 501 of these were league matches. His record breaking 573rd game for the Pilgrims came in a Lincolnshire Senior Cup game against Scunthorpe United in August 2003. He also holds three club records for his current club, St Albans. He has also played several times for the England National Game XI. In his time away from football, he enjoys playing golf and cricket.[1]

[edit] Career

He started his career in the youth team at Coventry City in the eighties alongside players such as Matthew Le Tissier. He was released by Coventry and signed his first professional contract in 1988 with Cambridge United where he stayed for one season. He then moved to Malaysia to play in the Malaysian Super League where he had a short spell with Sabah FA. He then moved back to England to play in the non-league with Fisher Athletic. After a season with Fisher, he transferred to Kettering Town in 1990 where he spent two years. At Kettering, he impressed and was snapped up by Boston United in 1992. His next twelve years with the Lincolnshire club were to prove the best of his footballing career. His first season with Boston was a disaster, with the club finishing bottom and being relegated from the Football Conference to the Northern Premier League. However, despite conceding 69 goals in 42 games, Bastock was still voted Player of the Season by supporters. He started to concede less goals the season after and Boston had a string of respectable league positions from 1993-1998 when the Pilgrims were moved to the Southern Premier League and their fortunes took an upturn. Bastock helped them to a second-place finish in the 1998-1999 season and the team won the league and were promoted back to the Conference in 2000. He spent two seasons in the Conference before Boston were promoted again thanks to the shot-stopping of Bastock to the Football League Third Division. He won the Player of the Season award again in the 2002-2003 season, ten years after last winning it. However, his time with Boston started to come to an end when he received a knee injury midway through the 2003-2004 season. He lost his regular place to the then substitute goalkeeper, Nathan Abbey. Abbey played well and Bastock could not regain his place in the first time after recovering, despite having been the first choice keeper for the past 11 seasons and missing just one game in the three years prior to his injury. At the end of that season, he left the Pilgrims to find first-team football. He was awarded a testimonial match for his great service to the club and then left on a free transfer to Scarborough. He stayed with the Seasiders for just one week, before being released and signing for Dagenham & Redbridge. He stayed there for two months, making just one appearance, before he was signed by then Conference South side St Albans City. He has played for the Saints ever since, winning promotion to the Football Conference in the 2005-2006 season and making nearly 100 league appearances in the process. He has set another three club records whilst with St Albans of most consecutive league games played - 84, consecutive clean sheets - 6 - and consecutive home clean sheets - 7. Bastock managed 84 league games in a row between his debut match on November 23, 2004 against Hornchurch and November 10, 2006 before he received a suspension for a red card he was given in an FA Cup tie against Yeading and finally missed a game. During his time with City, he has won several Player of the Month awards. In 2006 he went back to Boston to become a part-time goalkeeping coach at the club.

[edit] Honours

1999-2000 - Southern Football League Premier Division Champions, Boston United
2001-2002 - Football Conference Champions, Boston United
2005-2006 - Conference South Play-off Winners, St Albans City

[edit] External links

St Albans City F.C. - Current Squad
1 Bastock \| 2 Seeby \| 3 Cousins \| 4 Davis \| 5 Elphick \| 7 Hann \| 8 Marwa \| 9 Hakim \| 10 Clarke \| 11 Watters \| 12 Cracknell \| 13 Perks \| 14 S. Martin \| 15 Flynn \| 16 B. Martin \| 19 Roddis \| 21 Benyon \| 23 Batt \| 24 Sangare \| 25 Norris \| 26 Archer \| Manager: Lippiatt