Paul Birch: 1962 - 2009

A profile of Paul's career is as follows:

Paul Birch was born in West Bromwich on 20 November 1962 and began his career with Aston Villa and was a member of Villa's FA Youth Cup winning side of 1980. Paul made his league debut on 29 August 1983 in a 1-0 home win over Sunderland.

His most profitable season for Aston Villa was when he netted 6 goals in 38 appearances as Villa finished runners-up in Division Two to Millwall in the 1987/88 season.

On return to the top tier Paul found his first team appearances limited espically with the arrival of Aston Villa' new manager Jozef Vengloš in 1990. Paul was transferred to Second Division Wolves for £400,000 in February 1991 where he joined up with former manager Graham Turner. He had made 173 league appearances for Villa, scoring 20 goals after serving Villa for over 10 years and was awarded a testimonial by the club against Wolves in August 1991.

Paul made his debut for Wolves on 2 February1991 in a 2-1 home victory over West Ham and stayed with Wolves for over five years. He scored his most goals in one season with Wolves in the 1991/92 season netting 8 goals from 45 league appearances. But found regular appearances harder to come by after Wolves appointed another former manager of his, Graham Taylor.

On 7 March 1995 Paul joined Third Division Preston on loan as a replacement for the injured Lee Cartwright and made his debut two days later in a 1-1 draw at Gillingham. Prior to his arrival North End's season was faltering even though they were second they had only won 6 of the previous 14 matches. His second appearances saw Paul score his first goal for the Lilywhites in a 3-0 win at Rochdale on 12 March. Paul had helped to put the promotion season back on course by the time he scored his second goal on his eighth appearance in a 1-0 win at Deepdale against Doncaster on 6 April. Of these eight matches Preston had won five and drawn three. His eleventh and last appearances came in a 2-1 defeat at Cambridge on 16 April when he was replaced by Steve Wilkinson. Unfortunately the next match Preston played was the victory at Leyton Orient which clinched promotion.

Paul returned to Wolves but after 15 goals from 142 matches he joined Third Division Doncaster on 30 June 1996.

His debut for the Dons' was in a 1-0 defeat at home to Carlisle on 17 August 1996 and scored his first goal for the club on his third appearance eleven days later in a 1-1 draw at Exeter. After 27 appearances and 2 goals for Doncaster in 1996/97, Paul joined Exeter on 27 March 1997. He made his debut two days later in a 0-0 draw against Mansfield.

Paul netted 5 goals in 35 appearances for Exeter, his fifth came on his final league appearance on 2 May 1998 in a 3-1 home defeat to Macclesfield. Paul then had a spell with non-league Halesowen Town.

He had a spell as postman before joining the coaching staff at Forest Green Rovers in 2001, working under his former Villa teammate Nigel Spink and remained with the club after Spink was sacked. He left Rovers in August 2003 to take up a role coaching the youth teams at Birmingham, where Spink by now was goalkeeper coach.

In May 2008, it was revealed he was suffering from bone cancer and friends and former team-mates rallied round by setting up a trust fund in his name. A football match was arranged in July between Aston Villa Old Stars and Sutton United in aid of his trust fund

After a long battle and spells of chemotherapy, Paul was recently allowed home from hospital where he was cared for with the help of Macmillan nurses, but he was readmitted two weeks ago after being given the dreadful news that his condition had deteriorated. He died on 2 February 2009 at the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield.

Paul Birch League Career Records - season by season

1983/84 - Aston Villa - 22 apps; 2 goals

1984/85 - Aston Villa - 25 apps; 3 goals

1985/86 - Aston Villa - 27 apps; 2 goals

1986/87 - Aston Villa - 29 apps; 3 goals

1987/88 - Aston Villa - 38 apps; 6 goals

1988/89 - Aston Villa - 12 apps; 0 goals

1989/90 - Aston Villa - 12 apps; 0 goals

1990/91 - Aston Villa - 8 apps; 0 goals

1990/91 - Wolves - 20 apps; 2 goals

1991/92 - Wolves - 45 apps; 8 goals

1992/93 - Wolves - 28 apps; 3 goals

1993/94 - Wolves - 32 apps; 1 goal

1994/95 - Wolves - 10 apps; 1 goal

1995/96 - Wolves - 7 apps; 0 goals

1995/96 - Preston (on loan) - 11 apps; 2 goals

1996/97 - Doncaster - 27 apps; 2 goals

1996/97 - Exeter - 2 apps; 0 goals

1997/98 - Exeter - 33 apps; 5 goals