Paul Thomas McDonald (born 20 April 1968) is a Scottish 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 winger.

Playing career

After playing for a local boys' club in his home town McDonald was spotted by Hamilton Academical and signed for the club in June 1986. McDonald, who usually featured on the left wing played at the club during a period of comparative success, picking up winners medals for the First Division in 1987–88 and the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. After a long spell at the Accies he was signed by Southampton for £75,000 in the summer of 1993. McDonald failed to make an impact at The Dell, although a successful loan spell at Burnley prompted Brighton & Hove Albion to pay £25,000 for his services in 1996. He left the club the following year and returned to Scottish football, with spells at Dunfermline Athletic,

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

and

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

before returning to Hamilton for a final two season run in 2001.

Coaching career

After this spell with the Accies, McDonald, who had also been serving the club as Youth Development Manager from 2002, retired from playing and became the SFA community coach at

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. McDonald was placed in temporary charge of the Kilmarnock first team in October 2017, after the departure of

Lee McCulloch Lee Henry McCulloch (born 14 May 1978) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is the first team assistant manager at Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian. McCulloch was capped on eighteen occasions by the Sc ...

. In December 2021, McDonald was announced as the new director of the Thistle Weir Youth Academy at

. In March 2023, following the promotion of the academy's head of youth

Kris Doolan The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its disti ...

to the position of first team manager, McDonald joined the first team coaching staff serving as interim assistant coach.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Paul 1968 births Living people Footballers from Motherwell Men's association football defenders Scottish men's footballers Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Premier League players English Football League players Kilmarnock F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches