GERRY PEYTON 

Last updated : 23 June 2011 By Tony Scholes

Date and Place of Birth

20th May 1956 - Birmingham

 

Transfers to and from Burnley

from Atherstone Town - May 1975 (£10,000)

to Fulham - December 1976 (£35,000)

 

First and Last Burnley Games

Liverpool (h) - 6th December 1975

 

Nottingham Forest (a) - 23rd October 1976

 

Other Clubs

Aston Villa

----------------------------------------

Fulham, Southend United (loan), Bournemouth, Everton,

Bolton Wanderers (loan), Norwich City (loan), Brentford (loan),

Chelsea (loan), Brentford, West Ham United

 

 

Burnley Career Stats

 

Season League FA Cup League Cup Others Total
                     
  apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls
1975/76 20 - 1 - - - - - 21 -
1976/77 10 - - - 1 - 2 - 13 -
                     
Total 30 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 34 -

 

Profile by Tony Scholes

 

Burnley's signing of goalkeeper Gerry Peyton was a strange affair. The teenager had been rejected by Coventry, West Brom and Aston Villa and turned to non-league football with Southern League Atherstone Town.

Manager at Atherstone was former Birmingham and England goalkeeper Gil Merrick, and in May 1975 he persuaded Burnley chairman Bob Lord to part with £10,000 to take Peyton to Turf Moor virtually on his 19th birthday.

Alan Stevenson had established himself as the first team goalkeeper and he'd missed only five games in over three years with the Clarets. The young Peyton had been brought in to play reserve football and become the understudy to Stevenson who was on the brink of an England call up.

However, the 1975/76 wasn't a good one for Burnley and in December manager Jimmy Adamson left Stevenson out of the side and brought Peyton in for a debut in a home game against Liverpool. He kept a clean sheet, and had an excellent debut. Not only did he retain his place for the following game but he did so for the rest of the season, Stevenson making only three more league appearances.

We were relegated out of the first division at the end of the season but Peyton had certainly impressed the Burnley fans with his form and it was no surprise to see him in the first team at the start of the following season, amidst rumours that Stevenson could be on his way with Peyton now the established first team goalkeeper.

But it was to be the other way around when Peyton had a bad week in October 1976 which brought his Burnley career to a sudden halt and in fact to an end. He conceded four goals in a 4-4 draw at home to Charlton and a week later another five as Forest beat us 5-2 at the City Ground.

He had a particularly poor afternoon at Forest but he wasn't the only one, and for our next game at Plymouth manager Joe Brown made no fewer than five changes. Peyton was out, as were full backs Derek Scott and Terry Pashley along with both wingers Terry Cochrane and Tony Morley.

Stevenson came back at Plymouth and kept his place in the side, but it was still a massive shock when two months later we sold Peyton to Fulham for just £35,000, the London club signing him to replace another former Claret Peter Mellor who was struggling with injury.

He was just 20-years-old, and his career was only at the start. It was a set back for him but he went on to play over 600 league games in his career. Such was his early form for Fulham that he was called up by England boss Don Revie for Under-21 duty, but he turned it down because of his desire to represent the country of his parents' birth, the Republic of Ireland.

He got his chance and won his first cap against Spain just two months after that move to Fulham coming on as a substitute in that game.

He became a massive favourite at Craven Cottage and was there for almost a decade before moving on. In total he played 345 league games for Fulham and he also found time to fit in a ten game loan spell at Southend in the autumn of 1983.

When it was time to go he moved onto the south coast with Bournemouth, managed at the time by current Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp. Despite being close to his thirtieth birthday this was no short term stay at Dean Court and he passed the 200 league appearances for them.

Bournemouth had got him on a free transfer from Fulham, but after five years they actually sold him for £80,000 to Everton. Back in the big time he wasn't though and he never played for the first team at Everton but whilst there he had loan spells with Bolton, Norwich, Brentford and Chelsea before moving to Brentford in the summer of 1993.

His playing career was coming to an end and he played his last ever league game for Brentford in 1993 although he did sign for West Ham afterwards but, as at Everton, didn't make a first team appearance.

When he finally hung up his gloves he'd made no fewer than 608 league appearances for his various clubs. He was capped 33 times at full international level and was a member of Jack Charlton's World Cup squad in Italy in 1990.

His retirement as a goalkeeper was not the end of Peyton's football career. He moved into coaching and has twice since been involved in games at Turf Moor. His coaching career began in Japan with first Vissel Kobe and then Jubilo Iwata before moving closer to home with AIK Solna.

He eventually returned to England and joined Fulham as goalkeeping coach and he was in that capacity and on duty at Turf Moor when we beat them 3-0 in an FA Cup replay in the 2002/03 season.

He left Fulham at the end of that season. He was recruited by Arsène Wenger and joined Arsenal in a similar capacity. Over five years on is still with them. That brought about his more recent return to Burnley for the 2007/08 FA Cup 3rd round tie.

We never saw the best of Gerry Peyton at Burnley, indeed we didn't see much of him at all; he was with us for just about a season and a half. It was a surprise when he left but had he stayed there was little chance he would have got too much football with Stevenson remaining our first choice goalkeeper for six more years.

He was though the last goalkeeper to play top flight football for the Clarets until our promotion to the Premier League in 2009.