Paul Jones (born 28 June 1986) is 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, rugb ...

who plays for King's Lynn Town as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Career

Charlton Athletic and Leyton Orient Youth

Born in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

, Kent, Jones began his career with 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 ...

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 ...

in 2001 before signing for

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 profession ...

's youth system in 2002. Despite never breaking into their first team, Jones was thought highly of by then youth coach

Alex Inglethorpe Alexander Matthew Inglethorpe (born 14 November 1971) is an English former footballer who played as a forward for Watford, Leyton Orient, Exeter City and Barnet. He is now the Academy Director at Liverpool FC. Biography Playing career Born ...

Exeter City

When Alex Inglethorpe was appointed manager of

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

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

in Autumn 2004, one of his first moves was to bring Paul Jones in on loan. Arriving part way through the 2004–05 season, Jones quickly established himself as City's first choice keeper, making 23 appearances. In January 2005 he played in Exeter's memorable 0–0 draw at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wembl ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

. On 1 July 2005, Inglethorpe acquired Jones from Orient, and signed him to a permanent deal. At the end of the 2005–06 season, Inglethorpe left Exeter and was replaced by new manager

Paul Tisdale Paul Robert Tisdale (born 14 January 1973) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of club Stevenage. As a player, Tisdale represented Southampton, Bristol City, FinnPa, Panionios and Y ...

. During the pre-season, Jones was forced to compete for his spot with then backup keeper, and former Exeter youth trainee

Martin Rice Martin John Rice (born 7 March 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Exmouth Town. He spent most of his early professional career at Exeter City and has since played for their rivals Torquay United and non-L ...

. Days prior to Exeter's first match of the season, Tisdale selected Rice as his first choice keeper. Jones then became Exeter's second choice keeper. He returned to the first-team for the 2007 Conference playoff final, in which he saved a penalty – becoming the first person to do so at the new

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Exeter failed to win the final though and during the next season, Jones figured mostly as an understudy to Rice's replacement

Andy Marriott Andrew Marriott (born 11 October 1970) is an English-born Welsh professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. He is a journeyman player, having represented various clubs, and has also played for the Welsh national team. Football career M ...

. He was chosen in the first team again for the play-offs and this time, Exeter managed to win the final at Wembley, with Jones keeping a clean sheet. In the 2008–09 season he played in all 46 League Two matches for Exeter City. Also he won the 2008–09 player of the season award for Exeter City after many stunning performances in goal throughout the season.

Peterborough United

On 31 January 2011 Jones joined Peterborough United on loan until the end of the 2010–11.season. He made the move permanent by signing an initial one-year contract on 24 June 2011 to join on a free transfer. He found himself picked as first choice keeper for the majority of the season, as a result Peterborough offered him a new contract but he rejected it.

Crawley Town

On 26 May 2012, it was confirmed that Jones had signed for newly promoted League One side Crawley Town. He made his debut on 14 August, starting in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

match against

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

which ended 2–2, with Crawley winning on penalties by 4–1, and Jones saving two penalties in the shoot-out. After two seasons in League One with Crawley, he was released by at the end of the 2013–14 season. He made 92 league appearances in a Red Devils shirt

Portsmouth

In June 2014 Jones signed for League Two club

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

on a three-year deal. He was manager

Andy Awford Andrew Terry Awford (born 14 July 1972) is an English football coach and former footballer who was most recently the Youth Academy and Development Manager at Luton Town. Prior to this, he was the manager of Portsmouth, a club where he spent the v ...

's first signing as Pompey boss and was the only keeper at

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect Ar ...

when joining, after

Trevor Carson Trevor Carson (born 5 March 1988) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership club Dundee. Born in Killyleagh, Northern Ireland, Carson started his youth career with Killyleagh Boys before movin ...

's loan expired, whilst both John Sullivan and Phil Smith were released. On 1 February 2016, Jones re-joined

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

on a 28-day loan.

Norwich City

On 4 July 2016, Jones signed for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

on a two-year deal as goalkeeping cover. Jones made his first appearance for the Canaries in the 6–1

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by t ...

win over

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

. However, with him being third choice goalkeeper behind

John Ruddy John Thomas Gordon Ruddy (born 24 October 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Birmingham City. Ruddy began his career at Cambridge United, before signing for Everton as a 19-year-old. He spent five ...

and Michael McGovern, and later Angus Gunn, this would be his only first team appearance for Norwich. In January 2018, he was loaned to

for the remainder of the season, but again was merely cover for Christy Pym and made no first team appearances.

Fleetwood Town

On 2 August 2018, Jones signed for

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed i ...

on a one-year deal.

Sheffield Wednesday

On 6 August 2019, Jones signed for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

on a free transfer. On the 24 June 2020, he signed a one-month extension to cover the rest of the 2019/20 season which was delayed due to the coronavirus.

King's Lynn Town

On 1 June 2021, Jones joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

side King's Lynn Town on a free transfer, linking up with his former Leyton Orient youth-team manager

Ian Culverhouse Ian Brett Culverhouse (born 22 September 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is currently the manager of Boston United. Culverhouse began his career with Tottenham Hotspur. He found first team opport ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Paul 1986 births Living people Footballers from Maidstone Footballers from Kent English men's footballers England men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Charlton Athletic F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players King's Lynn Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players