Paul Kirk (born 13 May 1953) is a Northern Irish retired football player and manager.

Biography

Paul Kirk played football during his career for Ballymena United, Glentoran, Crusaders, and Linfield, winning the league title with 3 of the four clubs. He also had a spell with Aston Villa in the 70s but was most notable in his managerial career for managing

Lisburn Distillery Lisburn Distillery Football Club is a Northern Irish intermediate football club who are based in Ballyskeagh, County Down. A founder member of the Irish League, they currently play in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League, the third tier of t ...

for 13 years. As one of the longest serving managers in the Irish League, he was surprisingly sacked at the beginning of the 2009/10 season after taking the club into Europe for the fourth time in six years. Paul also won the Ulster cup and two league winning promotions and was manager of the year on two occasions. A UEFA Pro licence coach, Paul is the current manager of

Amateur League A sports league is a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other and gain points in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on week ...

side

Lisburn Rangers F.C. Lisburn Rangers Football Club is a Northern Ireland, Northern Irish, intermediate-level association football club based in Lisburn and playing in the Premier Division of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club has been a member of the A ...

Kirk played for the Glens in the

1970–71 European Cup The 1970–71 season of the European Cup club football tournament was won by Ajax in the final against Panathinaikos. It was the first time the cup went to Ajax, beginning a three-year period of domination, and the second consecutive championshi ...

against Waterford United and Frankfurt Eintrach. Eight years later he joined Waterford utd where he won the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

and league cup in 198

As manager of the Northern Ireland amateur league representative team Paul won 3 consecutive Briton Rose bowls against Scotland Kirk scored twice against

Hibernians F.C. Hibernians Football Club is a Maltese professional football club based in the town of Paola. History The club played one season in 1922 as Constitutionals FC, representing the pro-British Constitutional Party. They started up again in the 19 ...

in the

1980-81 European Cup Winners' Cup __NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab u ...

. His son Andy Kirk is a retired footballer and former Northern Ireland international.

Honours

* Irish League : 3 ** Glentoran 1969/70 ** Crusaders 1975/76 **

Linfield F.C. Linfield Football Club is a Northern Irish professional football club based in south Belfast which plays in the NIFL Premiership – the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. The fourth-oldest club on the island of Ireland, Li ...

1979/79 *

** Waterford United 1980

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Paul 1953 births Living people Association footballers from Northern Ireland Lisburn Distillery F.C. managers Glentoran F.C. players Crusaders F.C. players Bangor F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Ards F.C. players Association footballers from Belfast NIFL Premiership players Waterford F.C. players League of Ireland players Association footballers not categorized by position Football managers from Northern Ireland