Been a terrible week & have been trying to put into words the sense of shock & loss that Paul's passing has caused.
I hadn't known Paul as long as many but as a fellow Nottingham based City fan, I first met him over 25 years ago. I honestly don't recall when precisely. I do though remember feeling confused thinking "a Leicester supporter? With that accent???" [let's just say that he wasn't from the East midlands!]
Although friends already, it was firmly sealed following the Cottee winner at Old Trafford. A fantastically inebriated journey back was followed by more celebrations In Nottingham and a shared taxi journey towards our respective homes that had me in stitches.
From then up until 2017 when I moved back down to Leicestershire we regularly travelled down on the train together for home games as well as meeting up & travelling together for many away games. Throughout all of this time right up until the Stoke game the other week we would often meet up pre-match before home games (though as he had so many people to see he'd usually end up flitting between pubs & different groups). There were always stories of gigs attended, more recently trips to barely known corners of Europe following Gib and, before they packed it in, me trying to fathom the absolute dedication to seeing The Men They Couldn't Hang. Unless he'd had to drive for some reason or he had to rush back for a gig in Nottingham he'd often be there in The Kings after matches on his way back to the train station too.
Paul had many friends and I count myself privileged to have been amongst them. As others have testified he was just an all-round lovely guy. Generous of spirit and without any side to him. I will miss him so much.
Rest in peace Paul.
