Paul Gilchrist

Paul Anthony Gilchrist (born 5 January 1951) is a former footballer who played as a forward. He won the FA Cup with Southampton in 1976.

Gilchrist began his career with Charlton Athletic in 1968, before departing two years later to join Doncaster Rovers. In 1972, he moved to Southampton. After spending five years at Southampton, Gilchrist joined Portsmouth in 1978. A year later, he signed for Swindon Town. In 1980, Gilchrist joined Hereford United before a cruciate ligament injury forced him to retire.

Early life Paul Gilchrist was born in Dartford, Kent. During his time at Charlton he was loaned out briefly to several clubs, including Cambridge United and Fulham, but never played in their first teams. According to Lawrie McMenemy he was "One of the quiet brigade but a likeable, popular player". He suffered a number of injuries while at Southampton but managed to score 22 goals in his 120 appearances. Southampton went on to win the final at Wembley 1–0 against Manchester United on 1 May 1976.

He only made two league appearances in the following season, his final appearance being at The Valley, where he had started his career with Charlton.

Gilchrist spent a brief, unhappy period at the end of 1976 on loan to Alahfi in Saudi Arabia, before moving to Portsmouth in March 1977.

By the end of the 1977–78 season, Gilchrist had been joined at Portsmouth by his fellow ex-Saint, Bobby Stokes and St. John had been replaced as manager by Jimmy Dickinson, but he could not prevent Portsmouth being relegated into Division 4. By then, Gilchrist had played his last league game for the club.

Swindon and Hereford Despite the fact that Bobby Smith was in charge of team affairs at 3rd Division Swindon, it was general manager Danny Williams who influenced the signing of Gilchrist in August 1978. Smith didn't take well to this, and within a month, he had bought Andy Rowland from Bury. His only goal for Hereford came in the final game of the season.