Paul Francis Bannister (born 11 October 1947) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He made 12 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

between 1965 and 1968, before spells in

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

, Milton United, Copestick & Farrell, Hanley Rangers, and Middleport W.M.C.

Career

Bannister graduated through the

youth side to sign as a professional in April 1965. He played the last two games of the 1964–65 season and scored the club's last goal of the season in a 2–1 win over

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

at Vale Park. At the end of the season,

Jackie Mudie John Knight Mudie (10 April 1930 – 2 March 1992) was a Scottish international footballer who played as a forward. He won seventeen caps for his country, helping the Scotland national team to qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Startin ...

's side was relegated from the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

to the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. He played the opening two games of the following season, but fell out of favour. For the clash with bottom-placed

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

on 12 January, Vale assembled the youngest ever Football League forward line: Alex Donald (17), Roddy Georgeson (17),

Mick Cullerton Michael Joseph Cullerton (born 25 November 1948) is a Scottish former footballer. He is noted for his two spells with Port Vale, as well as for being Stafford Rangers' star forward as they were one of the elite non-league clubs in the 1970s. ...

(17), Bannister (18), and Paul Ogden (19). He broke his leg in a 2–0 home win over Halifax Town on 27 April 1966. After a second leg fracture he finally recovered to play in the first team again in April 1968, but after three consecutive appearances under Stanley Matthews in 1967–68, he was released by the "Valiants" in July of that year. He moved into

with

, Milton United, Copestick & Farrell and Hanley Rangers, before taking up a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

role with Middleport W.M.C.

Career statistics

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Paul Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Port Vale F.C. players Eastwood Hanley F.C. players Milton United F.C. (Staffs) players English Football League players Men's association football player-managers English football managers 1947 births Living people