Gary Bannister (born 22 July 1960) is an English former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who played for
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
(two spells),
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
,
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
,
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
,
Oxford United
Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...
,
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
,
Stoke City,
Lincoln City and
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town.
In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...
.
He had a long 17-year career lasting from 1978 to 1995 during which time he made 564 appearances in league and cup matches plus 42 as substitute. Bannister played as a
striker, and at just 5 foot 7 inches (170 cm) tall and weighing little over 11 stone (70 kg) he relied on his pace and skill to score 199 career goals in all competitions. He made one appearance for the
England Under 21 team against
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
in April 1982.
Early Life
Bannister was born in
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
, then in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. His father Gordon was a school caretaker and his sister Julie, played Hockey, representing England at the 1986 World Cup Finals in Holland.
Career
Bannister joined Coventry City as an apprentice and graduated through their youth team to make his first team debut in May 1978. He made only 22 appearances, scoring three goals in over three years for Coventry City before moving to Sheffield Wednesday in a £100,000 deal in the summer of 1981. Bannister was a crowd favourite at Wednesday, he was top scorer in each of the three seasons he was there with 22 goals in each campaign. In his first season (
1981–82) he was voted Player of the Year, and represented England at under-21 level. In
1983–84 he formed a feared partnership with
Imre Varadi
Imre Varadi (born 8 July 1959) is an English former professional footballer, known as a journeyman forward who appeared for 16 different clubs at all levels of professional football in England.
Playing career
Varadi was born in Paddington, L ...
; the pair scored 41 goals between them as Wednesday returned to the First Division for the first time in 14 years.
Bannister never played for Wednesday in Division One as he left to join Queens Park Rangers as a replacement for
Clive Allen in the summer of 1984. He enjoyed considerable success at QPR, relishing playing on their "
plastic pitch" at
Loftus Road
Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers.
In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...
. He made 168 appearances, scoring 66 goals in his three and a half seasons with them. Highlights included two hat-tricks against
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
. The first came in the 6–0 demolition of their local rivals on 31 March 1986 at Loftus Road and the second in the 3–1 win on 12 September 1987 also at Loftus Road. He returned to Coventry City in March 1988 in a £300,000 deal. His second spell at Coventry lasted two years and was not a great success as he scored 13 goals in 44 appearances before moving to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000 in March 1990 where he stayed until the summer of 1992, making 66 appearances and scoring 19 goals.
Bannister's latter years as a professional included spells at Oxford United (on loan), Nottingham Forest (where, partnering
Nigel Clough
Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Mansfield Town. Playing predominantly as a forward, but later in his career used as a midfielder, Clough was ...
, he was unable the stop the team being relegated from the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
), Stoke City, Lincoln City and Darlington before retiring at the end of the
1995–96 season. He also spent one year (1993–1994) playing for
Hong Kong Rangers
Hong Kong Rangers Football Club (), often abbreviated to Rangers, currently known as Biu Chun Rangers due to sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong ...
.
After retiring, he moved to
St Ives, Cornwall becoming involved in hotel maintenance and property development. He played for and coached
Porthleven
Porthleven () is a town, civil parish and fishing port near Helston, Cornwall, England. The most southerly port in Great Britain, it was a harbour of refuge when this part of the Cornish coastline was infamous for wrecks in the days of sail. Th ...
in the
South Western Football League
The South Western Football League was an English association football league composed of clubs from Cornwall and west and north Devon. It consisted of a single division at the eleventh overall tier of the English football league system, the seven ...
for several seasons. After about ten years in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, Bannister and family returned to the
Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
and a job in hotel maintenance in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
.
Career statistics
Source:
:A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the
Anglo-Italian Cup,
Football League Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...
,
Full Members Cup
The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992.
Th ...
and
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
.
References
External links
*
Unofficial QPR Hall of FameSporting Heroes.netLincoln City F.C. Official Archive Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Gary
1960 births
Living people
Footballers from Warrington
English men's footballers
England men's under-21 international footballers
Coventry City F.C. players
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players
Queens Park Rangers F.C. players
West Bromwich Albion F.C. players
Nottingham Forest F.C. players
Stoke City F.C. players
Lincoln City F.C. players
Darlington F.C. players
Hong Kong Rangers FC players
Porthleven F.C. players
Hong Kong First Division League players
Premier League players
English Football League players
Men's association football forwards
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players
Detroit Express players
Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong
English expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong
English expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States
English expatriate sportspeople in the United States