Paul Groves

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Paul Groves
Personal information
Full name Paul Groves
Date of birth February 28, 1966 (1966-02-28) (age 42)
Place of birth    Derby, England
Height 5' 11" (1.80m)
Playing position Central Midfielder (retired)
Club information
Current club Portsmouth (coach)
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
19??-19??
1987-1988
1988-1990
1989
1990-1992
1992-1996
1996-1997
1997-2004
2004
2004-2005
2005-2006		 Belper Town
Burton Albion
Leicester City
→ Lincoln City (loan)
Blackpool
Grimsby Town
West Brom
Grimsby Town
Scunthorpe United
York City
Stafford Rangers		 00? 0(?)
00? 0(?)
016 0(1)
008 0(1)
107 (21)
184 (38)
029 0(4)
268 (33)
013 0(3)
042 0(3)
00? 0(?)   
Teams managed
2001-2004 Grimsby Town

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Paul Groves (born 28 February 1966 in Derby, England) is an English former footballer and current reserve-team coach at Portsmouth.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] As player

Groves began his career in non-league football, playing for Belper Town and then Burton Albion. In April 1988 he moved to Leicester City for £12,000. He made 19 appearances for the Foxes, scoring two goals. In 1989 he was loaned out to Lincoln City, playing 10 games and scoring once. In January 1990 Groves signed for Blackpool on a permanent £60,000 deal. He became a regular in the side, making a total of 135 appearances and scoring 29 goals, before joining Grimsby Town for £150,000 in August 1992.

Groves spent two spells as a player at Grimsby, and was very consistent, regularly scoring goals from midfield, in addition to being a good tackler. Indeed, he was top scorer in his first season at the club 1992-93, with 12 goals in 46 matches. He also topped the club's scoring chart in 1995-96 with 10 goals in 46 matches and in 1998-99 with 14 goals in 46 matches. He also played every league game in his first (four-season) spell and in his first three seasons after returning from West Brom. He joined West Brom for £600,000 in 1996 but returned just over a year later for £250,000. He also spent several seasons as Grimsby captain.

During his time at Grimsby, the club spent all but the 1997-98 season in the second tier of the football league, with only one season outside of it. This was the successful play-off promotion and Auto Windscreens Shield-winning season, in which Groves captained Grimsby to two Wembley wins (the third of his career) in the space of three weeks and started all 68 games that season. In addition to league success, there were several cup runs in which Grimsby beat Premier League opposition including West Ham, Leicester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool.

In February 2004 Groves joined Scunthorpe United on loan.[1] Whilst there he scored the 100th league goal of his career, scoring twice in a 3-1 win at York City. He was described as "inspirational" by Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws.[2] Groves signed a one-year contract with York in June 2004, having been released a month earlier by Scunthorpe.[3] He brought his 19-year playing career to a close in May 2005-06 with Stafford Rangers after helping them to promotion to the Conference National. In July 2006, he joined the coaching staff at Portsmouth.[4]

[edit] As manager

Groves became player-manager of Grimsby in December 2001 with the club in danger of being relegated from Division One. With several good loan signings, including Andy Todd, he managed to steer the club to safety. The 2002-03 season was not as successful: the club was relegated. A poor 2003-04 season saw Groves sacked as manager in February, but remarkably kept on as a player.

This spell as manager, as well as his eventual transfer to rivals Scunthorpe and perceived lack of charisma, has tarnished his reputation with Grimsby Town fans and he is not as highly regarded as someone with his playing and goal scoring record should have been.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Blackpool

[edit] Grimsby Town

[edit] Leicester Masters

  • Central Masters Player of the Tournament: 2005
  • Masters Cup winner: 2005
  • Coventry Masters Golden Boot Winner: 2007
  • Coventry Masters Winners: 2007

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Iron move for Groves", BBC Sport, 2004-02-27. Retrieved on 2007-08-24. 
  2. ^ "Groves hailed by Iron boss", BBC Sport, 2004-03-10. Retrieved on 2007-08-24. 
  3. ^ "York sign Groves", BBC Sport, 2004-06-17. Retrieved on 2007-08-24. 
  4. ^ Groves leaves Stafford for Pompey

[edit] External links

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Grimsby Town F.C. – Managers

Hickson (1902–20) • Price (1920) • Fraser (1921–24) • Gillow (1924–32) • Womack (1932–36) • Spencer (1937–51) • Shankly (1951–53) • Berkessy (1954) • Walsh (1954–55) • Chilton (1955–59) • Ward (1960–62) • Johnston (1962–64) • McGuigan (1964–67) • McEvoy (1967–68) • Harvey (1968–69) • Kennedy (1969–71) • McMenemy (1971–73) • Ashman (1973–75) • Casey (1975–76) • Newman (1976–79) • Kerr (1979–82) • Booth (1982–85) • Grotier (1985) • Lyons (1985–87) • Roberts (1987–88) • Buckley (1988–94) • Laws (1994–96) • Cockerill (1996) • Swain (1996–97) • Buckley (1997–00) • Cockerill (2000) • Lawrence (2000) • Groves (2001–04) • Rodger (2004) • Law (2004) • Slade (2004–06) • Rodger (2006) • Watkiss (2006) • Buckley (2006–)