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Paul Morgan (footballer)

Northern Irish footballer (born 1978)

Field	Value
name	Paul Morgan
fullname	Mark Paul Thomas Morgan{{Cite book
editor-first	Barry J.
editor-last	Hugman
title	The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010–11
year	2010
publisher	Mainstream Publishing
isbn	978-1-84596-601-0
page	294 }}
birth_date
birth_place	Belfast, Northern Ireland
height
currentclub	Preston North End
(Head of Medical & Physiotherapy U19)

position	Defender
years1	1997–2001
years2	1997–1998
years3	2001–2007
years4	2007–2009
years5	2008–2009
years6	2009–2012
clubs1	Preston North End
clubs2	→ Sligo Rovers (loan)
clubs3	Lincoln City
clubs4	Bury
clubs5	→ Macclesfield Town (loan)
clubs6	Macclesfield Town
caps1	10
goals1	0
caps2	2
goals2	0
caps3	212
goals3	2
caps4	20
goals4	0
caps5	39
goals5	0
caps6	67
goals6	0
totalcaps	338
totalgoals	2
nationalyears1	1998
nationalteam1	Northern Ireland U21
nationalcaps1	1
nationalgoals1	0

| editor-first = Barry J. | editor-last = Hugman (Head of Medical & Physiotherapy U19)

Northern Ireland national football team (Head Physiotherapist U19) Mark Paul Thomas Morgan (born 23 October 1978) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer Present: Head of Medical and Physiotherapy at Preston North End and the Northern Ireland national football team U19.

Morgan played as a defender in a career lasted from 1997 until 2012, starting out with Preston North End in the 1997–98 campaign. He failed to make an appearance for North End from then until his departure in 2001 and also spent a spell on loan with League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers. His spell in Ireland brought a brief and solitary cap for the Northern Ireland U21 side. In 2001, he joined Lincoln City where he spent seven years of his career, notably qualifying for the League Two play-offs in four consecutive seasons, losing out in the 2002–03 and 2004–05 seasons at the final in the Millennium Stadium. Morgan became Lincoln skipper towards the end of his spell with the club and racked 212 league appearances, scoring 2 goals. Morgan was noted as being one of the best defenders in the lower leagues, he missed opportunities to play higher due to his commitment to Lincoln City. In 2007, he joined Bury where his former Lincoln boss Keith Alexander had taken up the director of football role. After two years with Bury he followed Alexander again to Macclesfield Town where he spent the last three years of his career.

Club career

Born in Belfast, Morgan began his career at Preston North End, spending time on loan at Sligo Rovers during the 1997–98 season. In his time at Sligo, Morgan was part of the team which won the 1997–98 League of Ireland Cup, defeating Shelbourne over two legs in February.{{cite web |url-status = dead

On 9 July 2001 Morgan linked up with Lincoln City on an initial one month's contract. Morgan had been offered a new contract by Preston North End but turned it down favouring a move to Sincil Bank in a bid to impress the Imps manager Alan Buckley.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120404183514/http://www.redimps.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10440~72772,00.html |archive-date = 4 April 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120404183543/http://www.redimps.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10440~74183,00.html |archive-date = 4 April 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120404183551/http://www.redimps.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10440~81099,00.html |archive-date = 4 April 2012 |url-status = dead

Morgan would go on to captain the side in 2002/3 and formed a fifth of a defence (with Stuart Bimson, Simon Weaver, Ben Futcher and Mark Bailey) that only conceded 37 goals in 46 League games that season. He was consistently linked to sides much higher up the Football League and was widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the lower leagues. He is one of the few players to have been involved in all five of the seasons where Lincoln reached the Playoffs to date, although he missed some of the actual Playoffs due to injury.

Paul scored twice during his time at Lincoln, the latter of which was a 93rd-minute equaliser in an away game at Torquay United, a game which the Imps would then win two minutes later. Thankfully he was rarely beyond the halfway line and his no-nonsense style of defending won him many fans at Sincil Bank.

He signed for Bury on 26 June 2007 where his former Lincoln boss Keith Alexander had taken up the director of football role, but his first season with the club was hampered by a knee injury.

On 8 July 2008 Morgan went on a season-long loan to Macclesfield Town, where he would work with manager Keith Alexander for the third time in his career. He was appointed Macclesfield's captain ahead of the 2010/2011 season by manager Gary Simpson who described him as 'perfect captain material', as well as studying at the University of Salford for a degree in physiotherapy. In May 2012, Morgan was released by Macclesfield due to the expiry of his contract. Morgan joined Conference National side Barrow on trial in July 2012 but was unable to earn a contract. At the age of 33, having been released by Macclesfield at the end of the 2011–12 season, Morgan retired from professional football.

International career

Morgan has represented his national team, Northern Ireland, at Under-16, Under-18 and Under-21 level, however, has not represented them at senior level. His only call up came in 2002/3, but the friendly was cancelled a week before the game was due to be played.

Physiotherapist

At the age of 33, having been released by Macclesfield at the end of the 2011–12 season, Morgan retired from professional football and signed for Accrington Stanley as the club's new head physiotherapist.{{cite web |url-status = dead

In 2022 Morgan returned to Preston North End as Head of Medical and Physiotherapy U19.

In 2019 Morgan also became the Head Physiotherapist for the Montserrat national football team, under Manager and Head Coach Willie Donachie.

At the end of 2023, Morgan joined the U19 Northern Ireland national team as head physiotherapist, alongside manager Gareth McAuley.

Honours

Sligo Rovers

League of Ireland Cup 1997/98

Lincoln City

League Two
- Play-off Finalists (2): 2002/03 (*), 2004/05
- Play-off semi-finalists (3): 2003/04 (*), 2005/06, 2006/7
- BBC East Midlands Sports Awards Division Three Footballer of the Year: 2004

Accrington Stanley F.C

Medicine & Performance Association Awards
- 2018
- Medical Team of the Year

References

(22 May 2012). "Retained List Announced". Macclesfield Town.
"North West Evening Mail | AFC | News | Morgan spices up Barrow pre-season training".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1978-births living-people association-footballers-from-belfast men's-association-footballers-from-northern-ireland northern-ireland-men's-under-21-international-footballers men's-association-football-defenders preston-north-end-f.c.-players sligo-rovers-f.c.-players league-of-ireland-players lincoln-city-f.c.-players bury-f.c.-players macclesfield-town-f.c.-players english-football-league-players alumni-of-the-university-of-salford accrington-stanley-f.c.-non-playing-staff

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