| Born: 22nd
December 1968 in Portsmouth. Previous clubs: Portsmouth,
Scunthorpe United, Port Vale, Hull City,
Eastleigh, Kettering Town, Gateshead and Lincoln
City.
Signed: July 2009.
Paul Musselwhite is a
surprise addition to the playing staff at Lincoln
City as he signed playing terms for The Imps a
month after retiring from football. He is also
the goalkeeping coach for Lincoln.
Musselwhite began his
career at his home town club Portsmouth as an
apprentice in 1986. Unfortunately, he failed to
make a first team appearance for Portsmouth so
left in March 1988 to join Scunthorpe United. He
became an important first team player at
Scunthorpe where he made 163 appearances during
his four years at the club.
His form at Scunthorpe
persuaded Port Vale to pay £17,500 although he
began his career as back-up to Trevor Wood.
However, Wood was dropped in September 1992 and
replaced by Musselwhite thereby starting an
ever-present run by Musselwhite that lasted for
almost three years. During his spell, Musselwhite
aided Vale to winning the Football League Trophy
in 1993 plus promotion from Division Two a year
later. Understandably he became a firm favourite
at Port Vale during the eight years that he spent
with Vale.
At the end of 1999/2000
season, Vale suffered relegation leading to them
making cutbacks. One of the victims of these cuts
was Musselwhite who was given a free transfer. He
subsequently signed for Hull City in September
2000.
He had a mixed time during
the near four years that he spent at Hull with
some matches played as first choice and others
not. In total, he made 104 appearances for Hull
before leaving The Tigers in June 2004 to rejoin
Scunthorpe United on a free transfer.
Musselwhite yet again
became the first choice goalkeeper at Scunthorpe
resuming where he had left off twelve years
previously. This time he made a further 82
appearances for United before being given a free
transfer in May 2006.
By all logic, this
signalled the end of his professional career
especially as he signed for non-league club
Eastleigh. However, he was unable to commit to
Eastleigh as he was unable to sell his Scunthorpe
home, so joined Kettering Town instead. After one
season at Kettering, he was handed a surprise
return to the professional game in January 2007
when his former Port Vale team-mate and then
manager of Vale, Martin Foyle, offered him the
chance to sign for Vale as emergency back-up to
their existing goalkeepers. In the end,
Musselwhite was not required so left five months
later without making a first team appearance.
In summer 2007, Musselwhite
joined Harrogate Town but left in January 2008 to
sign for ambitious club Gateshead even though
Gateshead were playing at a lower standard than
Harrogate. 18-months later, Musselwhite
"retired" from football after helping
Gateshead win two successive promotions to guide
the club to the Conference National division.
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