Gary Bannister

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; 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. He made 168 appearances, scoring 66 goals in his three and a half seasons with them - though in November 1985, Ron Atkinson's Manchester United approached Rangers in a transfer deal which was rejected by Qpr. Highlights whilst at Qpr included two hat-tricks against Chelsea. 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…

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Bannister was born in Warrington, then in Lancashire. His father Gordon was a school caretaker and his sister Julie, played Hockey, representing England at the 1986 World Cup Finals in Holland.