Roy Paul - Manchester City

Manchester City

Paul joined a Manchester City side which had just been relegated to the Second Division, and were thus playing at the same level as Swansea. Paul made his debut for the club on the opening day of the 1950–51 season, a 4–2 victory against a Preston North End side featuring Tom Finney. Manchester City went ten matches unbeaten at the start of the season, until a 4–3 defeat at Doncaster Rovers, where City blew a 3–0 half-time lead. Paul played in all but one match that season, becoming club captain and helping his club win promotion, as runners-up behind champions Preston. Writer HD Davies, under his pen name Old International, attributed much of City's cohesive play over the season to the addition of Paul to the side.

Promotion meant Paul was playing club football at the highest level for the first time. For the next three seasons, his club languished in the lower reaches of the league table. During one spell of particularly poor form in 1953, newspapers wrote of a feud between Paul and his team-mate Ivor Broadis. Paul was critical of Broadis, a talented inside-forward, but one who in Paul's view did not exert sufficient effort when defending. In the 1954–55 pre-season a new tactic was introduced which would change the direction of the club. Inspired by the Hungary team which had beaten England 6–3 the previous year, the club's reserves had used a tactical system in which Johnny Williamson was used as a deep-lying centre-forward, resulting in a lengthy unbeaten run. Manchester City manager Les McDowall decided to try the system at first team level, using Don Revie in the centre-forward role. Henceforth the system became known as The Revie Plan. The opening match of the season resulted in a 5–0 defeat at the hands of Preston North End. The following match the system was tweaked with Ken Barnes picked in place of John McTavish. City beat Sheffield United 5–2, and the system was retained for the remainder of the season. Paul's tactical role was relatively unchanged compared to that of some of his team-mates, but as captain he was responsible for retaining the cohesion of his players. The Manchester Guardian regarded Paul to be well suited to the system, calling it "a strategy which shows off to perfection the strength and maturity of Paul among his younger defenders".

Using the new system, results improved. In September 1954 City beat Arsenal to go top of the league, though not without personal cost for Paul, as an elbow from Arsenal's Tommy Lawton resulted in the loss of four teeth. City could not sustain their title challenge, finishing seventh, but Paul's team enjoyed a successful run in the FA Cup, reaching the final, where they faced Newcastle United. An early goal by Jackie Milburn and an unfortunate injury to Jimmy Meadows on 18 minutes left City playing with 10 men and gave them an uphill task. Paul took the responsibility of changing tactics: "Like certain generals I believe that in dire emergency it is often better to attack. I clapped my hands and yelled "Let's show these Geordies the stuff that's taken us to Wembley"". The performance in the remainder of the first half was improved, resulting in an equalising goal by Bobby Johnstone, but in the second half Newcastle scored twice to win 3–1. Publicly, Paul vowed to take his team to Wembley again, but privately he blamed himself for the defeat, questioning whether he had failed as captain.

The following season the club surpassed the achievements of the previous season, finishing fourth in the league and again reaching the FA Cup final, this time facing Birmingham City. Conscious that early nerves had affected his team in 1955, in the dressing room he focussed on instilling each member of his team with confidence. This time it was Manchester City who scored an early goal, and with City leading in the second half Paul told his men to keep the ball in play as much as possible in order to tire out the Birmingham players. Then German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann badly hurt his neck in a collision with Peter Murphy. Paul instructed Roy Little to take Trautmann's place, but Trautmann insisted that he would keep playing. Then Manchester City held on for the victory, and Paul collected the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II. X-rays later revealed that Trautmann had played on with a broken neck. Paul took the match ball from the final as a souvenir, and gave it to his son.

After the cup win Paul played one more season for Manchester City. In the summer of 1957 he was offered a new contract, but instead retired from the professional game aged 37, citing loss of pace due to age as the deciding factor. His final appearance for the club came on 22 April 1957 against Everton. In total he made 293 appearances for Manchester City, scoring 9 goals.

Upon finishing his professional career, Paul returned to the Rhondda Valley, and settled in Gelli. He continued to play at semi-professional level, joining Worcester City, who paid him £20 a week and loaned him a car. Paul made 124 appearances for Worcester between 1957 and 1960, including a three-month spell as player-manager. In 1959 he was part of the Worcester side which knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup. He then moved to Brecon Corinthians, and later Garw Athletic, where he ended his career. After the end of his football career, he became a lorry driver. He died in May 2002 aged 82, following a long illness with Alzheimer's disease, leaving a wife, Beryl, and two children, Robert and Christine. He is buried in Treorchy Cemetery.