Paul Crichton

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Paul Crichton
Personal information
Full name	Paul Andrew Crichton
Date of birth	October 3, 1968 (age 38)
Place of birth	Pontefract, England
Height	6'2" (187 cm)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Cambridge United
Number	1
Youth clubs
	Nottingham Forest
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1986-1988 1986 1987 1987 1987 1988 1988 1988-1990 1990-1993 1993-1996 1996-1998 1997 1998-2001 2001-2004 2004 2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-	Nottingham Forest Notts County (loan) Darlington (loan) Peterborough United (loan) Swindon Town (loan) Rotherham United (loan) Torquay United (loan) Peterborough United Doncaster Rovers Grimsby Town West Brom Aston Villa (loan) Burnley Norwich City York City Leigh RMI Accrington Stanley Gillingham Cambridge United	0 (0) 5 (0) 8 (0) 4 (0) 4 (0) 6 (0) 13 (0) 47 (0) 77 (0) 133 (0) 32 (0) 0 (0) 83 (0) 6 (0) 4 (0) 4 (0) 19 (0) 1 (0) 25 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:51, 11 October 2006 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Crichton (born 3 October 1968) is an English professional footballer currently playing for Cambridge United. Crichton is a goalkeeper. He was born in Pontefract.

Crichton, a journeyman footballer, started his career as a trainee at Nottingham Forest, turning professional in May 1986. During his time at Forest he was loaned out to six different clubs to gain first team experience, although he was never given an opportunity at Forest. The first of these loan spells, with local rivals Notts County, gave Crichton his league debut in September 1986. This was followed by further loan spells that season at Darlington (January) and Peterborough United (March). In September 1987 he rejoined Darlington on loan, with further loan spells at Swindon Town in December 1987, and Rotherham United in March 1988. He joined Torquay United on loan in August 1988, playing 13 games at the start of the season, keeping Ken Veysey out of the side. He played well enough to attract attention from other clubs, and moved from Forest to Peterborough United in November that year on a free transfer.

He was released at the end of the following season and joined Doncaster Rovers in August 1990, moving on to Grimsby Town on a free transfer in July 1993 after 77 games for Doncaster. He was an ever-present in his first season at Blundell Park, hardly missing a game for 3 years until September 1996, when he moved to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000, playing under his former Grimsby manager Alan Buckley.

His spell at the Hawthorns was frustrating for Crichton as he spent a lot of time on the bench, playing only 28 games in 2 years with the club, and finding himself playing second fiddle to Alan Miller, a goalkeeper signed for £400,000 shortly after Crichton's arrival. Crichton was again farmed out on loan, first for a week from 7 August 1997 to Aston Villa for whom he did not play. He joined Burnley on loan in August 1998, playing just once, in the opening game of the season, before being recalled to the Hawthorns after just 3 days.

He returned to Burnley in a permanent move on 19 November 1998, costing the Clarets £100,000 and quickly established himself in the Burnley side. He was an ever-present in the 1999–00 season, as Burnley won promotion to Division One, but the following season lost his place to Greek international goalkeeper Nik Michopoulos. His spell at Burnley may be remembered for his part in one of Burnley's worst ever spells in football. In February 1999, Burnley played Gillingham at Turf Moor, Gillingham won 5–0 with Robert Taylor scoring all 5 goals (at the time it was a post-war record for number of goals scored by one person on an away ground). Things went from bad to worst in the following fixture, again at home, this time to Manchester City as City won 6–0. Crichton was in goal for both games, and although the defence was perhaps more to blame than him, it was the most goals he had conceded in two games.

On 22 June 2001 Norwich paid £150,000 to sign him from Burnley. He was signed as a back-up goalkeeper, however, and spent his time playing understudy to Robert Green. After only 6 appearances in three seasons, Crichton joined York City on a free transfer in 2004, although he ended his final season at Norwich with a first division championship medal after the Canaries won promotion to the premiership. As is the nature in lower league football, however, Crichton was unable to secure a long term contract so after a handful of appearances he joined Leigh RMI for whom he played five times before joining his third club of the 2004/05 season, Accrington Stanley.

It was from Accrington Stanley, and following almost twenty appearances, that Crichton returned to league football, joining Gillingham at the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Crichton was signed as back up to Jason Brown, but was also given his first official coaching role. His one appearance in the 2005/06 season came in the home game against Yeovil, where he kept a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw.

On 26 June it was announced that Crichton had left Priestfield and joined Cambridge United as a player coach. In January 2007 he was loaned to King's Lynn until the end of the season, but remains as goalkeeping coach at Cambridge United.

[edit] Honours

None Paul Crichton has successfully managed to get himself sent off not once, not twice but three times to help contribute to Cambridge getting relegated to the conference south. He runs courses to spread his useful skills to other people this include 101 ways to get yourself sent off. These include rugby tackles and various other life threatening tackles. As some useful advise Crichton said himself "don't go for the ball go for the head". Paul Crichton was also seen flirting with manager jimmy quinn outside a gay bar. CAMBRIDGE have truly let there fans down and will pay the price.

[edit] External links

• Paul Crichton's career stats at Soccerbase
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk