Paul Randall

Paul Randall (born 16 February 1958) is an English footballer who played in the English Football League for Bristol Rovers and Stoke City.

Randall was born in Sefton, Liverpool.

His mother, June was born in Dar es Salaam in the African country of Tanzania after her father had moved there to work as a merchant.

After she moved back to England and joined the British Army and whilst stationed in Aldershot she met his father, Ken who was a semi-professional footballer for the local team having previously been on the books at Everton.

They moved back to Liverpool where they started a family before moving to the Somerset town of Glastonbury.

At school Randall began playing football with village side Charlton Mackrell and also represented Mid-Somerset and would attend matches at local side Glastonbury Town.

One day when he was watching a reserve match he was invited to play for them by the manager and at the age of 13 he played for Glastonbury Town Reserves against Ilminster Town.

Randall was then offered a trial by Bristol City after he was spotted by Bristol City player Peter Spiring's dad who told their scout Jock Rae about Randall.

He played a few trial matches for the Robins but an offer did not materialise and he carried on playing for Glastonbury.

He also played for the Somerset school county team whose manager was former Bristol Rovers winger George Petherbridge.

He got Randall a trial at Rovers and after impressing in the trial match he was invited back to play in the youth team and 'A'-team matches but after a year he was released.

After leaving school he went to work with his dad as a groundsman at Millfield and was still playing for Glastonbury Town now under the management of former Cardiff City player Peter Thomas.

Randall scored 24 goals in his first season under Thomas and he soon got him a trial with Cardiff City.

Randall had now left Millfield with his father and began working with his sister as a shelf-stacker at Andersons Supermarket.

At Cardiff he played in a reserve match against Leicester City and although they won the match 1–0 they did not offer him a contract.

Randall was now attracting attention of higher placed non-league clubs as he began to become one of the best players in the Western League.

His manager spoke to one of his friends the Manchester City scout Ken Barnes who invited to Maine Road for a trial.

He played and scored in a trial match against Stockport County.

This rekindled the interest of Bristol Rovers whose manager Don Megson invited Randall to play some reserve games for the club.

He then left Glastonbury Town to join Frome Town and his second match for Frome was a friendly against Bristol Rovers.

He scored and impressed the watching Rovers management who informed him the next day that they wanted to sign him.

Rovers paid £1,000 to both Glastonbury and Frome and Randall left his job at the supermarket to become a professional footballer.

Upon arriving at Eastville, Randall met with his former youth team coach Bobby Campbell and former teammates, Tony Pulis, Martin Thomas, Peter Aitken and Phil Bater.

Randall's love of punk music earned him the nickname "Punky" amongst his Rovers teammates.

After his first training session he was informed by manager Don Megson that he would be playing in a friendly against Trowbridge Town.

Rover won 6–0 with Randall scoring four goals and he earned a place in the starting line up for the season opener against Cardiff City.

Randall scored in a closely contested 1–1 draw instantly becoming a fan favourite.

He scored again in his home debut against Notts County but Rovers threw away a 2–0 lead to draw 2–2.

After pulling his hamstring in the next match against Fulham Randall was rested for the trip to Blackpool which Rovers lost 3–1.

He returned to the side which lost 2–1 back to back against Luton Town and Leyton Orient although Randall did scored both of Rovers' goals.

They won the match 1–0, with Randall scoring his 22nd goal of the 1977–78 season to remain in the second tier.

He was rested again by Megson as they won their first game of the season against Mansfield Town on 4 October 1978.

However, despite naming an unchanged side Rovers lost 3–1 to Burnley which prompted the arrival of Bobby Gould who scored a hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers on his debut.

Randall still suffering with injury missed the match against Tottenham Hotspur which infamously ended in a 9–0 defeat.

Results failed to improve and after the team crashed to a 5–1 loss at Sunderland Megson decided to leave for Portland Timbers.

Bobby Campbell was appointed manager with Gould as player/coach which was met with approval from Randall and the rest of the Rovers first team.

Randall soon returned to the starting line-up and scored twice in a 2–0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup.

They drew First Division Ipswich Town in the fifth round and after drawing 2–2 they lost the replay 3–0 at Portman Road.

This left Rovers concentrating on survival in the Second Division and the relegation battle went to the final day of the season with the team needing to go to Hull City and not lose.

Just before the start of the 1978–79 Bristol Rovers competed in the Anglo-Scottish Cup which was a disaster as after beating Cardiff 1–0 they crashed to a humiliating 6–1 defeat to bitter rivals Bristol City and ended the tournament by losing 2–1 to Fulham.