Paul Underwood

Paul Underwood

Paul Underwood was born in Wimbledon and explored depths of Non-League football starting his career at Carshalton Athletic, before moving onto Sutton United, Dorking, Molesey and Enfield before being snapped up by Rushden & Diamonds for a fee of £50,000. He was an inspirational figure on the left wing at Rushden & Diamonds, not only captaining them into the Football League, following their promotion as Champions from the Football Conference in 2000/01, but also their title winning season in Division 3 in 2002/03. Financial problems at Nene Park saw Paul sign for Luton Town on a free transfer in March 2004, however, Paul suffered a hamstring injury just 19 minutes into his Luton debut at Queens Park Rangers, meaning the Luton faithful had to wait until the 2004/05 season to see the best of him. 

During our League 1 promotion winning season, Paul formed a formidable partnership with Sol Davis on the left hand side, before settling in seamlessly into The Championship, helping Luton to a 10th place finish, whilst playing across various positions including left back, left midfield, central defence and even central midfield. However, a routine knee operation prior to the 2006/07 season led to Paul becoming very unwell with a blood infection, causing him to lose over 2 stone in weight, missing the entire season as Luton Town were relegated from The Championship. Having signed a contract extension until the end of the 2008/09 season, Paul hoped to make it back to first team action, but sadly was never able to play for the first team again, leaving Luton by mutual consent in October 2008 with the club in League 2. His final game for The Hatters was a 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion in March 2006 with the Hatters in The Championship.