Paul is pictured above during a match against Wolves on 12/1/1997

Name: Paul Agnew
Born: 15 August 1965, Lisburn
Position: Left-Back

Representative Honours:
Northern Ireland: Schoolboy caps, Youth caps, Under-23 Cap (1990).

Club Honours: (with Grimsby Town F.C.) :
Football League Division 4 Runner-Up 1989/90
Football League Division 3 Promotion 1990/91

Biography:
Raised on a farm near Lisburn, south west of Belfast, Paul Agnew impressed on the football field from a young age. He attracted the attentions of a number of English clubs including a trial at Manchester United, before signing schoolboy forms with Bolton Wanderers and earning schoolboy caps as a contemporary of the likes of Norman Whiteside and Alan McDonald.

Back in the Irish League with Cliftonville, Agnew continued to impress with Northern Ireland’s youth team and earned the attentions of Chris Nicholl, then assistant manager at Grimsby Town. He arrived at Blundell Park in November 1983 for a trial, signing as a professional the following February. Paul remained with the Mariners for over a decade playing mainly at left back. He became club captain and is fondly remembered for his goal against Scunthorpe during the 1989/90 campaign that clinched promotion from the Fourth Division. At the end of that season he was rewarded with a Northern Ireland cap in a 3-2 defeat by the Republic of Ireland at Portadown.

The following season 1990/91 Grimsby won a second successive promotion by finishing third in Division 3 and despite a series of niggling injuries Paul became an integral part of the Alan Buckley side that then established itself in the second tier of English football. When Buckley left for West Bromwich Albion in October 1994, Agnew soon followed - signing for a transfer fee of £65,000 in February 1995. Paul took the captain’s armband shortly after arriving at the Hawthorns, becoming a popular first team regular in Division 1. He was eventually released by the Baggies at the end of the 1996/97 season.

After a brief spell at 3rd Division Swansea City, Paul moved into Non-League football around the Midlands, before finally ending his professional career in 1999. Over his 15 years as a professional Paul made more than 300 League and Cup appearances.

After ending his career as a player Paul began training as a football coach achieving F.A. Level 2 Coaching Certificate in December 2000 followed by F.A. qualifications in the Treatment & Management of Injuries, Emergency First Aid, Child Protection and Coaching Disabled Footballers. He has coached with Birmingham County F.A. Football Development
Team and for Adidas, as well as with Sutton College Football Academy.

Paul joined Whittington F.C. in 2000 and heads up the Club’s popular Saturday Soccer School as well as helping to run the Disabled/Special Needs section. In addition he supports the Club’s Coach Development Programme as well as being a well known and respected sports coach in a number of Lichfield schools.

In 2008 Paul was chosen as the F.A.’s top coach across the five counties that make up the West Midlands region, as well as being awarded the title of Staffordshire F.A.’s “Coach of the Year”.

Seasonal record: 1983 - 1997