92 Peter Shearer

Position : Forward (for us)

Played : 1986-7

Appearances : 1

Goals : 0

Peter was a 19-year old six-footer signed from Birmingham for whom he'd made 4 appearances.

He was brought in as a squad player but soon got drafted into the first team as a striker when Alan Young got winded/injured. He made his debut in the League Cup away leg at Burnley and scored twice. The second was a bizarre goal ; Burnley's centre halves had gone AWOL when a long ball was played up to Shearer on the edge of the box with a distant fullback playing him onside. Burnley's keeper Joe Neenan had a rush of blood to the head and came charging out without a hope of getting to the ball ; he was still 10 yards away when the ball skimmed off Peter's head and looped over him into the net. Peter retained his place for the next League game at home to Northampton but was embarrassingly bad and never played for us again.

He moved on to Nuneaton a few months later but it was at Cheltenham that he found his feet as a midfielder and made the England semi-pro team. Harry Redknapp paid £18,000 to bring him back into League football with Bournemouth in 1989 and he spent five injury-wracked seasons there before a £50,000 move back to Birmingham in 1994. He won a Second Division Championship medal with them in 1995 but an Achilles tendon injury prevented him from playing for them again. He joined Peterborough as player-coach but never made a first team appearance.