Paul Shinners (born 8 January 1959) is a 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 ...

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 Gillingham,

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

and

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

Career

Born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London, Shinners began his career at Southern League club

Fisher Athletic Fisher Athletic F.C. were a semi-professional football club from South East London, which last played in the Conference South, which is one of the two leagues that form the sixth tier of the English football league system. The Bermondsey-based ...

, where he hit over 200 goals and finished as the league's top scorer in the 1983–84 season, alerting Gillingham who signed Shinners in October 1984. Shinners also holds the Fisher Athletic record of most career goals for the club with 205 goals scored. Shinners made just four appearances for Gillingham in the 1984–85 season, starting just one game.

manager

Cyril Lea Cyril Lea (born 5 August 1934) is a Welsh former footballer. He was born in Wrexham, and was capped on two occasions by Wales. He played for Leyton Orient and Ipswich Town, and was responsible for team selection at Portman Road for two months b ...

took Shinners on loan in March 1985, with his debut delayed until mid-April due to injury. His debut finally came on 16 April 1985 in a 1–1 away draw at

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. Shinners scored one goal in six games for the U's, coming in the penultimate game of the season, a 3–2 defeat to

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 ...

Layer Road Layer Road was a Football League stadium in Colchester, England. It was only used for football matches and was the home ground of Colchester United before being replaced by the Colchester Community Stadium. The stadium held spectators and was ...

on 6 May 1985. Shinners left Gillingham for

in the summer of 1985 where he was top scorer for the club in his first season with 19 goals in all competitions. Following this, he suffered numerous injuries, rounding off his stint with the O's with 32 goals in 77 league games. He then joined

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

side

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

in January 1989, later becoming a fitness education consultant after hanging up his boots. While selling dance machines to schools in conjunction with Pulse Fitness, Shinners now runs a café and Christian bookshop in

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

, Cambridgeshire under the umbrella of his "Passion for Souls Ministries" charity. He has made frequent trips to Africa (particularly Uganda) over the last decade as an Evangelical preacher. He was embroiled in controversy regarding a trip to

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

in December 2012, when Ugandan newspaper, The Daily Monitor, alleged that he had spoken in favour of the

Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainst ...

also known as the "Kill the Gays" Bill. Shinners denied his involvement and support for the Bill, however video footage later came to light that proved he supported the death penalty for homosexuals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shinners, Paul 1959 births Living people Footballers from the City of Westminster People from Westminster English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Fisher Athletic F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Southern Football League players English Football League players National League (English football) players