| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Peter Andrew Shearer [1] | ||
| Date of birth | 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) |
| International career | |||
| England National Game | 1 | (0) | |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
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.
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]
Birmingham City