Peter Shearer

Peter Andrew Shearer (born 4 February 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward or midfielder for a number of teams in the lower divisions of the Football League in the 1980s and 1990s.

Peter Shearer
Personal information
Full name Peter Andrew Shearer[1]
Date of birth (1967-02-04) 4 February 1967
Place of birth Birmingham, England
Position(s) Forward / Midfielder
Youth career
Coventry City
1983–1985 Birmingham City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1986 Birmingham City 4 (0)
1986 Rochdale 1 (0)
1986–1988 Nuneaton Borough
1988–1989 Cheltenham Town
1989–1994 AFC Bournemouth 85 (10)
1994–1996 Birmingham City 25 (7)
1997–1998 Peterborough United 0 (0)
National team
– England National Game 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Shearer was born in Birmingham, and began his football career as a schoolboy with Coventry City. When he left school in 1983 he joined Birmingham City as an apprentice, and signed professional forms two years later.[2] He made his first-team debut as a 17-year-old, on 3 November 1984, as a substitute in a goalless draw at home to Shrewsbury Town in the Football League Second Division. He played four more first-team games that season, at the end of which Birmingham were promoted to the top flight,[3] but made no further appearances, and in April 1986, he was one of several players released with the club in financial difficulties.[4]

Moving on to Rochdale of the Third Division,[5] Shearer played only one league game[6] before dropping into non-league football six months later with Nuneaton Borough.[7] A year with Nuneaton and a successful spell with Cheltenham Town,[8] during which he was capped for the England's semi-professional representative side,[2] brought him an £18,000 move back to the Second Division with Harry Redknapp's AFC Bournemouth.[9][10]

Shearer's form at Bournemouth impressed sufficiently for a £500,000 move to First Division club Wimbledon to be projected, but a knee injury spoilt his plans. In December 1992, after the player's return to fitness, Cheltenham manager Lindsay Parsons predicted that Shearer would "be a Premier League player in a month"; Cheltenham Town would receive a third of any fee paid to Bournemouth for such a sale.[11]

After trials with Coventry City and Dundee,[2] Barry Fry brought Shearer back to Birmingham in January 1994 for a fee of £50,000.[12] Initially he failed to settle, and was soon made available for transfer, but in the 1994–95 season he came into his own. He made a major contribution to the club's winning the Second Division title and the Football League Trophy both with his tenacity and his goalscoring[2] – ten years later, the Birmingham Evening Mail, discussing the young Darren Carter, suggested that "Blues have not had a player capable of scoring goals in that manner from central midfield since Peter Shearer".[13] An operation on his Achilles tendon prevented him playing in the last two games of the season, when the club clinched the title,[14][15] and he never played for the club's first team again.

Shearer had a trial with Notts County in 1997[16] before joining Peterborough United as player-coach. He played for Peterborough's reserve team,[17] but his only appearances for the first team were three outings as an unused substitute.[18][19]

Honours

with Birmingham City

References
  1. "Peter Shearer". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  2. Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
  3. Matthews, p. 220.
  4. "£250,000 for City". The Times. 23 April 1986. Retrieved 9 March 2009 – via NewsBank.
  5. "Rochdale". Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  6. "Peter Shearer". UK A–Z Transfers. Neil Brown. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  7. Newman, Paul (15 November 1986). "Telford poised to savage Burnley". The Times. Retrieved 9 March 2009 – via NewsBank.
  8. "History". Cheltenham Town F.C. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  9. "A F C Bournemouth". Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  10. "Tinnion on the move to Bradford City". The Times. 8 March 1989. Retrieved 9 March 2009 – via NewsBank.
  11. Gammie, Walter (7 December 1986). "Wye revives Woking's hopes". The Times. Retrieved 9 March 2009 – via NewsBank.
  12. Shaw, Phil (10 February 1996). "Fry ready to put heat on Leeds". The Independent. London. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  13. Tattum, Colin (30 December 2004). "Carter out to impress". Birmingham Evening Mail. Retrieved 27 August 2015 – via Questia Online Library.
  14. "Birmingham City midfielder Peter Shearer is to have an Achilles tendon operation". The Independent. 1 May 1995. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2010 – via Highbeam Research.
  15. Matthews, p. 230.
  16. "Forward thinking Cox sparks goal spree". Bolton Evening News. 21 July 1997. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  17. "End of United's nightmare". Oxford Times. 20 August 1998. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  18. Swann, Alan (24 January 2009). "S: Posh midfielder scored a hat-trick of penalties but we still lost". Peterborough Evening Telegraph. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  19. "1997/98 Playing Records: Most Times as an Unused Substitute". UpThePosh.net. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
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