420 Paul Todd

Biography

Tall inside left Paul Todd joined the Tigers at the start of October 1951 for a fee just below £10,000, a signing designed by the Hull City directors to replace recently departed player-manager Raich Carter in the forward line. Todd slotted straight into the first team and started 23 consecutive games, but notched only twice in a Boxing Day win over his former club Blackburn Rovers and a January 1952 thrashing of Bury. By early December 1951 the Tigers were drifting down the table towards the relegation spots, which prompted the City directors to make up with Carter and lure him back to Boothferry Park in a playing capacity. Carter and Todd were selected as an inside forward pair for the first two months of 1952 but in March 1953 Todd was dropped to the Reserves, effectively spelling the end of his first team career at Hull City. He was placed on the transfer list in August 1952 and rejected a transfer to Chesterfield in October 1952, instead remaining at Hull City and making just six appearances during the 1952/53 season under new manager Bob Jackson, scoring once in November 1952 against Leeds United. Todd left the Tigers in the 1953 close season.

Paul Raymond Todd was born in Middlesbrough and raised by his train driver father within sight of Boro’s Ayresome Park ground. World War Two intervened at the time when Todd might have come of age as a footballer, he instead worked in a chemical plant prior to joining the Royal Air Force. He toured the Far East in the military and played for a RAF Ceylon XI before returning to the UK towards the end of the war, when he was stationed near Doncaster. He played several wartime games for Doncaster Rovers before signing a contract in August 1945 – he made his senior debut in a November 1945 FA Cup tie against Rotherham United.

With the War ended and the Football League restarting in August 1946, Paul became club captain at Doncaster Rovers and was pivotal to a superb 1946/47 season that ended in the club lifting the Division Three North title. Between November 1946 and March 1947 Todd netted an impressive eighteen goals in nineteen starts and he even delayed his honeymoon until after promotion was secured, following his marriage in March 1947. Elevated to Division Two, Todd found goals harder to come by and in November 1947 he asked to be placed on the transfer list, a request that was rejected by his club. Doncaster ended the 1947/48 season in the bottom two and returned to Division Three North, Todd continued to score regularly as Donny narrowly missed out on promotion in the 1948/49 season then lifted the Division Three North title for the second time in four years at the end of the 1949/50 season – Paul missed just one league fixture during those two seasons and continued to attract interest from clubs in higher divisions. By May 1950 he had taken his Doncaster Rovers tally to 57 goals in 172 appearances,

In July 1950 Paul was granted his wish to leave Doncaster Rovers and signed for Division Two side Blackburn Rovers with a £10,000 transfer fee paid for his services – Todd was reunited with Blackburn Rovers manager Jackie Bestall, who had signed him for Doncaster Rovers five years earlier. The transfer was complicated by Todd’s ownership of a sports outfitter shop and he was permitted to remain in Doncaster and train with his former side in order that he could continue to manage his business. Paul made his debut for Lancastrian side against Sheffield United in August 1950 and scored his first goal for the club a fortnight later against Brentford, going on to score ten league goals in his first season at Ewood Park, his best haul in second tier football – in February 1951 he scored both Blackburn goals in a 2-2 draw against Hull City, an event that perhaps left a lasting impression on Hull City’s directors. He was part of the Rovers first team in the early weeks of the 1951/52 season before being dropped in September 1951, by which time he had scored twelve goals in 47 appearances for Blackburn Rovers. He left the club in October 1951 to join Hull City.

In May 1953 Todd was appointed player-manager at Eastern Counties League side King’s Lynn, supplementing the income he received from his sports outfitters shop in Doncaster. He helmed King’s Lynn for four years, winning the Eastern Counties League title in his first season and gaining election to the Midland League while signing several players from Hull City during his tenure – in July 1955 he attempted to sign faded England international Wilf Mannion from the Tigers. In November 1954 he diversified his career further when successfully applying to be licensee at the White Horse pub in King’s Lynn, a role he ended in January 1962. In January 1957 Todd advised the King’s Lynn board that he would not be seeking a further contract extension that summer and in March 1957 he was replaced as manager by Rotherham United stalwart Jack Selkirk, though Paul remained a part of the playing staff until he left the club in June 1957.

In August 1957 Todd joined Eastern Counties League side March Town as a player and in April 1958 he was elevated to the player-manager role – Paul maintained his dual post for two seasons before leaving the club and hanging up his playing boots in May 1960. During the 1960/61 season Todd was rumoured to be on the shortlist for various managerial posts, notably Stockport County in August 1960, but these options came to nothing. In July 1961 he was appointed manager at Central Alliance League side Boston United, a club that was financially stricken and had just left the Southern League. Todd helmed Boston United as they joined the Midland League for the 1962/63 season and when that team finally folded in July 1964 Todd went on to manage the phoenix Lincolnshire League club Boston FC, managing FC’s ascent up the non-league ladder and reaching the Midland League for the 1968/69 season before resigning in April 1969.

Todd was appointed manager of Midland League side Worksop Town in May 1969, a post he held for two years before resigning in March 1971 amidst a financial crisis. He retired from the football scene to puruse his many other business interests and worked as a manager in the Boston area while living in Toynton All Saints, a village ten miles north of Boston. He died in a hospice in Boston in October 2000.

Details

Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 8 May 1920, Middlesbrough
Hull City First Game: 6 October 1951, Southampton A (Division Two), 31 years, 151 days old
Hull City Final Game: 31 January 1953, Gateshead H (FA Cup Fourth Round), 32 years, 268 days old

Clubs

Doncaster Rovers (1945-1950), Blackburn Rovers (1950-1951), Hull City (1951-1953), King’s Lynn (1953-1957), March Town (1957-1960)

Hull City Record

Career: 30 apps, 3 goals