Gary Peters (footballer)
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| Gary Peters | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gary Peters | |
| Date of birth | August 3, 1954 (age 52) | |
| Place of birth | Carshalton, England | |
| Nickname | GP | |
| Position | Defender | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Shrewsbury Town | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Aldershot | ||
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
| 1975-1978 1978-1982 1982-1984 1984-1985 1985-?? 198?-1990 |
Reading Fulham Wimbledon Aldershot Reading Fulham |
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| Teams managed | ||
| 1994-1998 2003 2004- |
Preston North End Exeter City Shrewsbury Town |
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* Professional club appearances and goals |
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Gary Peters (born 3 August 1954 in Carshalton, Sutton, Greater London) is a professional footballer turned manager. He is currently manager of Shrewsbury Town in the (English) "League Two" (England’s fourth tier).
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[edit] Playing career
A moderately successful playing career as a defender included spells at Aldershot (twice), Reading (twice), Fulham (twice) and Wimbledon (once!). Rejected as a trainee at non-league Aldershot, Peters began his career at Southern League Guildford City before moving on to Reading as a right-back in 1975, winning promotion to Division 3 in his first season. After failing to agree terms on a contract extension, Peters left the club in 1978, having made 156 appearances.
A Football League tribunal decided upon a transfer fee of £25,000 as Peters moved to Fulham. After 64 appearances for the club, Peters joined Wimbledon, who had spent the previous four years moving between the third and fourth divisions, after being promoted to the football league (Div. 4) in 1977. In his first full season for ‘The Dons’ (1982-83) Peters helped the club to promotion as Fourth Division champions. The following year Wimbledon, with Peters, won promotion again, reaching Division Two. He captained Wimbledon on many occasions during his two seasons with the club.
Peters rejoined Aldershot in 1984, where he played in central defence. He made only 23 appearances for ‘The Shots’ and rejoined Reading for 1985-86. Reading clinched promotion to Division Two that season. Peters made nearly a hundred appearances for ‘The Royals’ in his second spell, where he also coached the youth team. After returning to Fulham, Peters ended his playing career in 1990.
[edit] Early Management
Following his retirement as player, Peters took on roles as assistant manager at Fulham, Cambridge and Preston North End. After the departure of John Beck in late 1993-94, Peters was promoted to manager at Preston, who at the time were 3rd from bottom of Division Three (tier 4 in England). Under Beck, Preston played the long-ball system, but Peters changed their style to a more attractive passing game. He also changed their fortunes, as Preston won promotion to Division Two in 1996. During his time at Preston, Peters brought in players such as David Beckham (on loan) and Jon Macken. In 1997 he sold Kevin Kilbane for a club record fee of £1.2m. Jon Macken would eventually be sold by the club for another record, £5m, after scoring more than 70 goals for the club. In early 1998, with Preston sinking back towards Division Three, and having finished fifteenth two years running, Peters resigned. David Moyes was promoted to become Preston's next manager. A month later, after considering his future, Peters rejoined Preston as the club's Centre of Excellence Manager. He set about developing the club's Centre of Excellence, nurturing the talents of local 9-16-year-olds. Recent graduates of the Preston academy include Paul McKenna (footballer) and Andrew Lonergan. But with the Centre of Excellence ticking over, Preston chose to make Peters redundant, in a cost-cutting measure.
Exeter City quickly secured his services and issued him with the challenge, with just 13 matches of the 2002-03 season remaining, of preserving their league status. Peters lost this challenge, but Exeter lost only three of those 13 games. With the club in financial turmoil, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman both resigned after they had been arrested as part of an investigation of club finances. Possibly facing a large points penalty for going into administration, having to release a large number of the playing staff and being unable to sign any new players, Peters resigned four days later. Peters joined Everton, where David Moyes was manager, as a scout.
[edit] Shrewsbury Town
In November 2004, Peters took over the reins at Shrewsbury Town. The club had been promoted out of the Football Conference in the summer of 2004 under Jimmy Quinn but were struggling in the newly-titled "League Two", and had been knocked out of the FA Cup by non league Histon. Peters appointed the much-travelled Mick Wadsworth as his assistant in January 2005, and Shrewsbury finished 21st out of 24 that season, 11 points above the relegated Kidderminster. Going into the 2005-06 season, Shrewsbury were favourites for relegation, and after a poor start to the season it looked a likelihood. But Peters turned Shrewsbury's fortunes upwards, with the club even knocking Football League Championship club Brighton out of the League Cup and taking Sheffield United, also of the Championship, to a penalty shootout in the same competition. Towards the end of the season, a consistently good run of results gave Town a chance of reaching the playoffs, though the club failed to climb as high as seventh, eventually finishing tenth.
Despite being linked with the vacant managerial post at League One side, Tranmere Rovers, on May 17, 2006 Peters agreed a two year extension to his contract, which will keep him at the club until the end of the 2008-09 season.
[edit] Managerial career
| Gary Peters | League | Cups/Playoffs | Total | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Season | Position | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | Played | Won | Drew | Lost |
| Preston North End |
1994-95 | 4th in Div.3 (IV) | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 29 | 15 | 9 | 5 |
| 1995-96 | 1st in Div. 3 (IV) | 46 | 23 | 17 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 50 | 24 | 18 | 8 | |
| 1996-97 | 15th in Div. 2 (III) | 46 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 52 | 20 | 9 | 23 | |
| 1997-98 | Did Not Finish | 21 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 13 | 5 | 10 | |
| December 1994 - January 1998 | 138 | 64 | 36 | 38 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 159 | 72 | 41 | 46 | ||
| Exeter City | 2002-03 | 23rd in Div. 3 (IV) | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | - | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| February - May 2003 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | - | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | ||
| Shrewsbury Town |
2004-05 | 21st in Lge.Two (IV) | 29 | 11 | 10 | 8 | - | - | - | - | 29 | 11 | 10 | 8 |
| 2005-06 | 10th in Lge.Two (IV) | 46 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 51 | 18 | 14 | 19 | |
| 2006-07 | 10th in Lge.Two (IV) | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| November 2004 - present | 80 | 29 | 25 | 26 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 86 | 31 | 26 | 29 | ||
| Total | 231 | 98 | 66 | 67 | 27 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 258 | 108 | 72 | 78 | ||
[edit] External links
- Profile at the League Managers Association (LMA) website
- Aldershot FC fansite "Where Are They Now?" section
- Report: Peters principles help Shrewsbury
| Shrewsbury Town F.C. - Current Squad |
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1 Esson | 2 Hall | 3 Ashton | 4 Drummond | 5 Hope | 6 Sorvel | 8 Langmead | 9 Cooke | 10 Asamoah | 11 Williams | 12 Herd | 14 Davies | 15 Cadwallader | 16 Cowan | 17 Hogg | 18 Leslie | 19 Edwards | 20 Adaggio | 21 MacKenzie | 22 Humphrey | 23 Thomas | 24 Symes | 25 Jones | 28 Burton | 29 Fortune-West | 31 Shearer | Manager: Peters |
