Paul Shrubb (1 August 195528 May 2020) was an English professional

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 ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and scout who made 350 appearances as a player in the Football League, most notably for Brentford and

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

. He later returned to Aldershot as

assistant manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and coached at a number of

non-League 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 d ...

clubs.

Playing career

Fulham

Shrubb began his career in the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club Fulham and signed his first professional contract in 1972. He made his debut during the 1972–73 season, which would be his only appearance before his departure in 1975.

Hellenic

Shrubb moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

to sign for

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

club Hellenic in 1975. The high point of his time with the club was reaching the final of the 1976 NFL Cup, which was lost to

Cape Town City A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

Brentford

Shrubb returned to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and joined Fourth Division club Brentford in March 1977. With a small squad of players, Shrubb blossomed as a utility player in

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

and

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

and contributed to the Bees' promotion to the Third Division in the 1977–78 season. Shrubb took over as captain from

Jackie Graham John Joseph Graham (born 16 July 1946) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager who played as a central midfielder and inside left. He is best remembered for the decade he spent in the Football League with Brentford, for w ...

for a time, while Graham was out injured. Shrubb missed only a handful of games per season until the 1981–82 campaign, when he was dropped early in the season. He departed the Bees in August 1982, having made 198 appearances and scored eight goals during his five years with the club.

Aldershot

Shrubb signed for Fourth Division club

in August 1982. He made 202 appearances and scored six goals during a five-season spell and departed after the Shots' success in the 1987 Fourth Division play-off final. He put his skills as a utility player to good use, wearing every single

shirt number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to ...

(1–11) during his time with the club.

Non-League football

Shrubb dropped into non-League football in 1987 and had spells with Isthmian League clubs Woking, Dorking,

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...

Cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

and

Wessex League The Wessex Football League is an English association football league formed in 1986, with its premier division currently at the fifth step of the National League System, or the ninth tier of the overall English football league system. The part ...

club Fleet Town.

Return to Aldershot

Shrubb signed for Isthmian League Third Division

phoenix club The Phoenix Building and Cincinnati Club are two historic buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The membership of these two clubs was chiefly Jewish. Located at 812 Race Street, the Phoenix Building was constructed in 1893, desi ...

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...

in 1992. The Shots won the Third Division championship during the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

season and secured promotion to First Division in the following campaign. He made 31 appearances before retiring in January 1995. Shrubb was awarded a testimonial versus

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

on 1 August 2007, in recognition of his service to the club.

Management and coaching career

Between 1987 and 1992, Shrubb held

player-coach 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 ...

roles with Woking, Dorking, Leatherhead, Fleet Town and Cove. When he returned to Aldershot in 1992, he became player-assistant manager of the club and was caretaker manager for one match in 1995, after the departure of Steve Wignall. He was offered the job on a permanent basis but turned it down, citing work commitments. After his retirement from playing, Shrubb served as Steve Wigley's assistant, before departing the

Recreation Ground A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

for the final time in 1997. He later served

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

and

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

as a coach and resigned from the latter club in April 2001, in protest over the sacking of fellow coach Ian McDonald.

Scouting career

Shrubb served as a scout at

, Plymouth Argyle and AFC Wimbledon. While with Plymouth Argyle, he worked alongside former Aldershot teammate

Andy King Andrew or Andy King may refer to: * Andrew King (astrophysicist) (born 1947), British astrophysicist * Andrew King (architect), Canadian architect and cross-disciplinary artist * Andrew King (mayor) (born 1960 or 1961), former mayor of Hamilton, Ne ...

Personal life

Shrubb lived in

and ran his own

window cleaning Window cleaning, or window washing, is the exterior cleaning of architectural glass used for structural, lighting, or decorative purposes. It can be done manually, using a variety of tools for cleaning and access. Technology is also employed and ...

business. As of 2014, he was living in

Ash, Surrey Ash is a village and civil parish in the far west of the borough of Guildford, Surrey. Ash is on the eastern side of the River Blackwater, with a station on the Reading-Guildford-Gatwick line, and direct roads to Aldershot, Farnham and Guildf ...

. Shrubb was diagnosed with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

in January 2006 and was given two years to live by doctors. The condition forced him to give up full-time work in 2009. Shrubb died of the disease in May 2020.

Career statistics

Honours

Brentford * Football League Fourth Division fourth-place promotion: 1977–78 Aldershot/Aldershot Town * Football League Fourth Division play-offs: 1986–87 * Isthmian League Second Division third-place promotion: 1993–94 *Isthmian League Third Division:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shrubb, Paul 1955 births Sportspeople from Guildford English men's footballers Brentford F.C. players English Football League players Hellenic F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Aldershot F.C. players National Football League (South Africa) players Men's association football midfielders English expatriate men's footballers 2020 deaths English expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Woking F.C. players Dorking F.C. players Isthmian League players Leatherhead F.C. players Fleet Town F.C. players Cove F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. managers Charlton Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Plymouth Argyle F.C. non-playing staff AFC Wimbledon non-playing staff Isthmian League managers Footballers from Surrey English football managers Aldershot Town F.C. non-playing staff Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from motor neuron disease