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PAUL BARRON
Born: 16 September 1953
Came from: Slough Town Went to: Arsenal
First game: 14 August 1976 Last game: 11 April 1978
Appearances: 55 (55/0) Goals: 0
Born in Woolwich, London, Barron qualified as a PE instructor. As a goalkeeper, he played amateur football for non-league Welling United, Wycombe Wanderers and Slough Town, before turning professional with Argyle.
He was on the books of Welling from 1971-73, though no appearances are recorded before playing twice for then non-league Wycombe between 1973 and 1975. He then moved to Slough and played 44 times in the 1975-76 season before the move to Home Park, under Tony Waiters - no doubt an astute judge of goalkeepers - and signing his first professional contract in July 1976.
Barron spent two season at Home Park, playing under first Waiters, then a second successive former goalkeeper-turned-manager in Mike Kelly and Lennie Lawrence, and finally Malcolm Allison.
His star burned brightly and quickly, Waiters judgement of a fellow star keeper in the making was proven and after just 55 appearances for Argyle, he was sold to Arsenal for £70,000 in July 1978, under Terry Neill, as cover for Pat Jennings.
Unable to dislodge the legendary Jennings, he made his debut in August 1978 against Manchester City and made just eight appearances across two seasons before moving to Crystal Palace in 1980. He joined Palace along with Clive Allen, while Kenny Sansom moved to Arsenal as part of the deal. Between 1990 and 1992 and initially under Terry Venables, he made 90 appearances for the Selhurst Park side.
Palace were relegated in the 1980-81 season, but he remained at Palace in 1981-82 and for the first half of 1982-83 as the Eagles finished 15th in consecutive seasons. He then joined West Bromwich Albion in December 1982 and spent three seasons at the Hawthorns making 63 appearances, between 1982-85 which included a loan spell at Stoke City in 1985, for whom he played once.
In August 1985 he then joined Queens Park Rangers and played in the 1986 Football League Cup Final - known as the 'Milk Cup' final due to the sponsors that season -appearing in their defeat by Oxford United at Wembley Stadium. Barron was at Loftus Road between 1985 and 1988 and made 32 appearances in total. His spell also included a short spell on loan at Reading until the summer of 1988, where he played four times.
In the summer of 1988 he then returned to his first club, Welling, and made 100 appearances for the club over the next couple of years. In 1990 he moved to then non-league Cheltenham Town and played five times, before returning to Welling again for the 1990-91 season and playing a further 25 times.
After retiring as a player, he became a goalkeeping coach, working at Coventry City and former clubs, Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion. He then moved to Aston Villa, before joining Middlesbrough in 2001 where he was part of the coaching team as the club reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2006. In November 2007 he left 'Boro to become goalkeeping coach at Newcastle United, remaining until December 2010 when he left following the departure of manager Chris Hughton. He then moved to Nottingham Forest for a three year spell between 2010 and 2013.
In 2015 he had a brief spell in management with a stint at the helm of Las Vegas Mobsters, in the USA. A former Premier Development League (PDL) side which fed into the USL (United Soccer League), the club has since dropped and now play in the Nevada Premier League in the fifth tier of US football.
He later worked at the Las Vegas Sports Academy and by 2023, was a coach for the Girls' Elite Academy teams. For the 2023-24 season he had a spell with Green Island FC, in New Zealand, serving as their Director of Football.
In 2024, he returned to Newcastle United's Academy, in a dual role as a goalkeeper-coach mentor and as a sessional coach.
In parallel to that role, he maintains an involvement with Richmond International Academic and Soccer Academy (RIASA) as a goalkeeping-coach for the Leeds-based academy, which combines US-accredited degrees with professional football training.
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APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]
The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.
I'm very grateful to many who have helped write GoS-DB's player pen-pictures, and to Dave Rowntree, the PAFC Media Team and Colin Parsons for their help with photos. Thanks also to staff at the National Football Museum, the Scottish Football Museum and ScotlandsPeople for their valuable assistance.
The following publications have been particularly valuable in the research of pen-pictures: Plymouth Argyle, A Complete Record 1903-1989 (Brian Knight, ISBN 0-907969-40-2); Plymouth Argyle, 101 Golden Greats (Andy Riddle, ISBN 1-874287-47-3); Football League Players' Records 1888-1939 (Michael Joyce, ISBN 1-899468-67-6); Football League Players' Records 1946-1988 (Barry Hugman, ISBN 1-85443-020-3) and Plymouth Argyle Football Club Handbooks.
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