Paul Clayton and I share a history in that we are both products of Sprowston High School which has since produced England international Danny Mills (with whose brother I was in the 30th Norwich Cub Scouts). A member of the 1983 FA Youth cup winning side (see also Louie Donowa, Jeremy Goss , Jon Rigby ), he scored eight goals in that campaign including two in the final against Everton. Paul made fifteen first team appearances for the Canaries but failed to score in the 953 minutes that he was on the pitch. He spent some time in Scandinavia with Orebro in the summer of 1984.

He moved to Darlington in March 1988 for £25,000 - becoming their record signing. He scored on his debut although in his remaining twenty one games for the Quakers, he only added two further goals. Joining Crewe Alexandra in 1989, he played sixty times for them scoring twelve goals. Leaving Crewe, Paul moved into non-league football in the North West with spells at Macclesfield Town, Stafford Rangers, Stalybridge Celtic and Northwich Victoria.

Paul played in Crewe's Dean Greygoose's testimonial in May 1999 with the programme for that match revealing that Paul had quit professional football 4 years earlier to train as a theatre technician at Crewe's Leighton Hospital. He has since moved on to work as a training co-ordinator within the NHS.