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He had previously played league football for Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, Port Vale and Queens Park Rangers.
His Burnley debut came in a sensational, and very unexpected, 2-1 win against Fulham and until the end of the season he scored four goals in fifteen games, missing just one game against Tranmere after returning to Maine Road.
The Clarets tried to sign Peter Crouch during the summer of 2001 but missed out when he chose Portsmouth and Taylor was brought in on a free transfer after his contract had expired at Manchester City (by now KKMC).
He scored too on his debut following his permanent move, Burnley’s first goal of the season at Sheffield Wednesday, and with Burnley surging to the top of the league he also won back his place in the Welsh squad.
He scored a total of sixteen league goals in the season including a purple patch in October and November when he netted in five out of six games before the run was ended with a suspension that saw him out of the 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.
Towards the end of that season he did lose his place in the side when David Johnson arrived on loan and Stan preferring the Johnson/Moore option mostly. In fact the only two games the players started together were at Sheffield United (lost 3-0) and at home to Wolves where Taylor was substituted with us 3-0 down.
He did end the season as he started it though and headed in the goal against Coventry having come on as a sub that almost took us into the play offs.
Last season didn’t start too well and he struggled in front of goal and with sixteen games played he had scored just twice. In fact he didn’t score a solitary home goal until his goal of the season first in the 2-1 Boxing Day win against Wolves.
But into the New Year and his battling performances saw him go from villain to hero as we went on our cup run and he then scored his first hat trick as we threw one in big style against Watford on the Turf.
He ended the season though with our last goal, in a 2-1 defeat at Selhurst Park against Franchise, but not before he had collected several awards from the supporters’ groups at the Player of the Year evening.
There were rumours of him leaving during the summer but these were dismissed and then he was hit by a dreadful eye injury in a pre-season match against Leeds. It has prevented him from playing since but fortunately there is no lasting damage and he will be able to continue his career.
That will not be at Turf Moor though because he is now a Nottingham Forest player and will be until the end of the 2005/06 season by which time he will be 33 years-old.
We would like to thank Gareth for his contribution over the last two years and more and wish him all the best at Forest.