Neil Shipperley
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| Neil Shipperley | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Neil Jason Shipperley | |
| Date of birth | October 30, 1974 | |
| Place of birth | Chatham, England | |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Chelsea | ||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1992–1995 1994 1995–1996 1996–1998 1998–1999 1999–2001 2001–2003 2003–2005 2005–2007 2007 |
Chelsea Watford (Loan) Southampton Crystal Palace Nottingham Forest Barnsley Wimbledon Crystal Palace Sheffield United Brentford |
37 (7) 6 (1) 67 (12) 61 (20) 20 (1) 78 (27) 87 (32) 41 (8) 39 (11) 11 (0) |
| National team | ||
| 1993–1995 | England U21 | 7 (3) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Neil Jason Shipperley (born October 30, 1974 in Chatham, Kent) is a retired English football professional footballer whose clubs included Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United. He was a centre forward.
Shipperley lived in Hillingdon, Middlesex and attended Bishopshalt School. He is the son of Dave Shipperley, who played for many years at centre back for Charlton Athletic and Gillingham.
[edit] Career
Shipperley began his career as a trainee at Chelsea on leaving school in 1991 and was an occasional member of the first team. He was loaned out to Watford during the autumn of 1994 and soon after returning to Stamford Bridge he was transferred to Southampton in January 1995.
He was signed for the Saints by Alan Ball for a record fee of £1.5 million.[1] He was a large, powerful forward who was surprisingly mobile and was particular good with his back to goal. He seemed to be fairly settled in the first team, but following Ball's departure, new manager Graeme Souness recruited Egil Østenstad from Norway and, after two years at The Dell, Shipperley left the Premiership club for Division One promotion chasers Crystal Palace in October 1996, for a fee of £1 million. During his time with the Saints he won his first England under-21 cap, earning seven in all.
He helped Palace win promotion to the Premiership at the end of the 1996-97 season later but was unable to save them from going straight back after just one season. Next stop was at newly promoted Nottingham Forest, who also went down within a year of promotion.
The following season, 1999-00, Shipperley was playing for Barnsley scoring 31 goals from 88 appearances in two seasons before moving to Wimbledon and forming a strong partnership with David Connolly during 2002-03 which produced nearly 50 Division One goals. When Wimbledon went into receivership, Shipperley 'moved' back to Palace (the two clubs had been ground-sharing), and during the 2003-04 season he captained them to promotion to the FA Premier League, scoring in the play-off Semi-Final home win over Sunderland and the winning goal in the Final win over West Ham.
However, he rarely featured in the Premiership campaign, with England international Andy Johnson preferred. After Palace were relegated, Shipperley moved to Sheffield United on a free transfer in July 2005, scoring 11 goals in 39 appearances in his debut season, helping them to promotion to the Premiership. Injuries made it difficult for Shipperley to make an impact in the top flight, and he was one of several United players transfer-listed in December 2006.
On 15 January 2007[2], his contract with Sheffield United was terminated by mutual consent. He then signed a four month contract with Brentford on January 23, 2007.[3] Despite a promising start, Shipperley failed to score in his eleven appearances for Brentford, and on April 25, 2007 he announced his retirement from professional football.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology, p578. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
- ^ Neil Shipps out
- ^ Fitz lands his man
