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 The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

, 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 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 side Lisburn Rangers F.C. Kirk played for the Glens in the

1970–71 European Cup The 1970–71 season of the UEFA Champions League, European Cup club association football, football tournament was won by AFC Ajax, Ajax in the final against Panathinaikos F.C., Panathinaikos. It was the first time the cup went to Ajax, beginning ...

against

Waterford United Waterford Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Phort Láirge) formerly Waterford United Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Waterford who play in the League of Ireland First Division. The club was founded and elected to the ...

and Frankfurt Eintrach. Eight years later he joined Waterford utd where he won the FAI Cup 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. 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 Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

international.

Honours

* Irish League : 3 ** Glentoran 1969/70 **

1975/76 ** Linfield F.C. 1979/79 * FAI Cup **

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