Paul has just been voted the national Carling One-All Award Manager of the Year after just one season in charge of Doncaster Sunday Alliance League Division Two team Fox & Hounds

Paul, who played for Halifax Town Reserves, joined the club at the start of last season as a coach.

"It was my first job as a coach and I went there to work with John Godfrey, who I had played under earlier in my career, and to learn from him," said Paul. "Unfortunately, John had to step down after three months due to ill health and he became chairman.

"I was asked to take over, even though I'd never run a club before, and John's son Darren agreed to be my assistant.

"When I took over things were pretty grim and we'd only got one point from 10 games, but we managed to turn things around and we ended up getting promotion.

"We try to make it as professional as we can. We have a match day programme, match sponsors, advertising hoardings and all the shirts are hung up in the dressing room."

It was player Chris Rix who put Paul's name forward.

"I don't know what the judges' critieria was, but I would imagine that it was more than just results," said Paul. "It's a great award for me to have won, but it is a credit to the team and the staff that I've got around me."

The nephew of former Newcastle United boss, Joe Harvey, Paul is keen to test himelf at a higher level and he is hoping to eventually manage a semi-professional club.

In the meantime he is looking around for an opening with a decent standard Saturday team.

But he has no plans to quit Fox & Hounds just yet, and he was delighted when they presented him with a 4-0 win on Sunday – his 37th birthday.

Winning entries were judged by a panel including BBC Radio Five Live's Mark Clemmit.