On July 3rd 2002, Darlington left back Paul Heckingbottom joined Norwich on a three year contract to act primarily cover for Adam Drury at left back. Paul was signed rather than Norwich's initial target Andy Dawson (Scunthorpe) as Paul was available on a Bosman free transfer whilst Dawson would cost approximately £100,000 which would be too much for the cash-strapped Canaries. Paul's signature on a contract from Norwich ended a number of month's speculation that also suggested Burnley were keen on the former Manchester United trainee.

Born in Barnsley in July 1977, Paul began his career at Old Trafford as a trainee before joining Sunderland for the 1995/6 season. In his next four season with the Black Cats, he did not break into the first team but had loan periods at Scarborough (1997/98 - 29 appearances) and Hartlepool (1998/99 - 5 appearances, 1 goal). He joined Darlington initially on loan (10 appearances in 1998/99) before signing for them for the 1999/2000 season where he made 45 appearances scoring once. Another 18 appearances and a third league goal came in the 2000/01 season. In between these spells with Darlington, he had a trial with Bolton in March 1999.

On 8th April 2003, Norwich announced that they would be giving Paul a free transfer, and that his name would be circulated to league and conference clubs. The latter part of June 2003 saw media suggestion that Bradford would make a move to take Paul to the Valley Parade. This materialised on 3rd July 2003 when Paul signed a two year deal with the Bantams despite interest from Colchester, Southend and Doncaster. Bradford announced the signing of striker Michael Branch from Wolves at the same time. A return to his native Yorkshire and a chance to continue playing in Division One appealed to Paul. In return, Bradford expressed that Paul was the leftback they had been looking for - however despite his efforts, the Bantams were relegated to Division Two in April 2004.

Bradford's dire financial situation may put the club out of business and so all the players were encouraged to find new homes. According to the People on May 16th 2004, Sheffield Wednesday were keen to bring Heckingbottom to Hillsborough. This move came true on Tuesday 25th May 2004 with Paul signing a two year contract with the Owls, stating publicly that he was excited by Chris Turner's vision for taking Wednesday forward.

On 13th January 2006, Paul was loaned to Barnsley and was made a permanent transfer the following week. Paul played for Barnsley in their League One play-off final against Swansea at the Millennium Stadium on 27th May 2006, which finished 2-2 but which the Tykes won on penalties with Paul scoring one of their goals

Paul returned to Bradford on 16th July 2007 signing on a loan deal until 1st January 2008. After 23 games on loan for the Bantams, Paul turned this into a permanent transfer on 8th January 2008