Meridian Valley Park yesterday announced the signing of Paul Hayes, shocking many fans on social media in the process.
The announcement came just hours before their match against Lewisham Borough in the London Senior Cup, which saw Meridian VP came back from 2-0 down to win 4-2.
MASSIVE SIGNING‼️
The club is delighted to announce the signing of striker Paul Hayes.
Paul has played over 500 professional league matches, playing in the Championship, league 1 & league 2. #Charlton #Scunthorpe #newportcounty #Wycombewanderers #scefl pic.twitter.com/UyJ1OnftlO— Meridian VP FC (@MeridianFC) November 22, 2019
The Southern Counties East Football League side named the former Charlton, Wycombe, Scunthorpe and Barnsley striker in the lineup last night and he scored twice and got himself an assist on his debut.
Hayes is an English retired professional football forward who made more than 500 appearances for 11 clubs in all three divisions of the English Football League.
He spent his youth career at Norwich, whom he joined as a 13-year-old, and stayed with them between 1996 and 2001. Hayes’ first involvement with the first team came in pre-season prior to the Canaries’ 2001–02 First Division campaign.
After becoming frustrated at his lack of first team opportunities, he went on trial at Third Division clubs Torquay and Scunthorpe and had his Norwich academy contract cancelled on 3 December 2002.
He also had spells with Huddersfield, Preston, Brentford, Crawley, Plymouth, Hemel Hempstead, Newport, AFC Sudbury and Romford.
HIS CAREER STATS:
2001–2002 – Norwich City – 0 games, (0 goals)
2002–2005 – Scunthorpe United – 99 games, (28 goals)
2005–2007 – Barnsley – 75 games, (11 goals)
2007 → Huddersfield Town (loan) – 4 games, (1 goals)
2007–2010 – Scunthorpe United – 129 games, (33 goals)
2010–2011 – Preston North End – 23 games, (2 goals)
2010–2011 → Barnsley (loan) – 7 games, (0 goals)
2011–2012 – Charlton Athletic – 19 games, (3 goals)
2012 → Wycombe Wanderers (loan) – 6 games, (6 goals)
2012–2013 – Brentford – 23 games, (4 goals)
2013 → Crawley Town (loan) – 11 games, (2 goals)
2013 → Plymouth Argyle (loan) – 6 games, (0 goals)
2013–2014 – Scunthorpe United – 16 games, (4 goals)
2014–2017 – Wycombe Wanderers – 101 games, (19 goals)
2017 – Hemel Hempstead Town – 0 games, (0 goals)
2017–2018 – Newport County – 13 games, (3 goals)
2018–2019 – AFC Sudbury – 32 games, (11 goals)
2019 – Romford – 1 games, (0 goals)
2019– Meridian VP – 1 gamess (2 goals)
Total – 566 games, (129 goals)
After retiring from football in June 2019, Hayes began a career as an agent. However as can be seen, it didn’t take him long to get himself back in the game.
Fans took to express their shocked reaction at Meridian VP signing very experienced EFL player Paul Hayes – see those tweets on the next page.
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