| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Duncan Nichol Shearer | ||
| Date of birth | (1962-08-28)28 August 1962 (age 63) | ||
| Place of birth | Fort William, Scotland | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Position | Striker | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1979–1983 | Clachnacuddin | ? | (?) |
| 1983–1986 | Chelsea | 2 | (1) |
| 1986–1988 | Huddersfield Town | 83 | (38) |
| 1988–1992 | Swindon Town | 164 | (79) |
| 1992 | Blackburn Rovers | 6 | (1) |
| 1992–1997 | Aberdeen | 152 | (54) |
| 1997–2002 | Inverness Caledonian Thistle | 55 | (17) |
| Total | 462 | (190) | |
| International career | |||
| 1994–1995 | Scotland | 7 | (2) |
| 1995–1996 | Scotland B[1] | 2 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2004–2008 | Buckie Thistle | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Duncan Nichol Shearer (born 28 August 1962) is a Scottish formerfootballer, currently coaching the 'Development squad' atInverness Caledonian Thistle. During his playing career, Shearer predominantly played forHuddersfield Town,Swindon Town,Aberdeen and Inverness. He also captained the Scotland 'B' team and played seven times for the fullScotland national team.
Since his retirement from playing, Shearer has had spells as assistant manager at Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as managing in theHighland League withBuckie Thistle. He is the brother of fellow formerClachnacuddin andEnglish League player,Dave Shearer. He also playedshinty as a youth.
Shearer was born inFort William. Having had an unsuccessful trial withPartick Thistle as a teenager, Shearer began his career as astriker at ScottishHighland Football League club,Clachnacuddin F.C. inInverness.
While playing withClach, the then-Aberdeen manager,Alex Ferguson, watched Shearer on several occasions and subsequently invited him to play in areserve team match on a Wednesday evening atPittodrie. However, early in the afternoon of the game, the Clachnacuddin chairman received a telephone call from Aberdeen to inform him that the reserve fixture that evening had been cancelled. The Chairman had to rush down toInverness railway station and 'haul' Shearer off the train to Aberdeen.[citation needed] No further invitations for a trial at Aberdeen materialised at that time. However, later in his career, Shearer did get the opportunity to sign for theDons.
From Clachnacuddin, Shearer moved toChelsea in 1983. He left at the end of the1985–86 season after appearing in only two League games in his three-year spell at theLondon club, scoring one goal, although he stated he learned a lot during his time atStamford Bridge.[2]
He signed forSecond Division Huddersfield Town, scored ahat-trick in his first full game for the club (a 3–1 win againstBarnsley) and was top goalscorer for1986–87 and1987–1988, whilst also being named the team'sPlayer of the Year for 1987, and being including in the publicationHuddersfield Town F.C. - The Fans' Favourites during the club's centenary in 2008.
However, he was unable to prevent Huddersfield's relegation to theThird Division at the end of the 1987–88 season. Weeks before this, the unrelated English strikerAlan Shearer (aged 17) had scored a hat-trick in theFirst Division forSouthampton againstArsenal, a game which Arsenal captainTony Adams missed through injury. In his autobiography 11 years later, Adams said that he had followed the progress of the game onCeefax and mistakenly believed that the Shearer who scored the hat-trick was Duncan Shearer.[citation needed]
He was approached byLou Macari, who offered a club record fee of £250,000 for Shearer to join Swindon in 1988, and fill the striker position followingDave Bamber andJimmy Quinn exiting the Wiltshire club.[3] In his first season, he was sidelined due to an injured foot and later a groin strain, but managed to score 14 goals in the 45 league games he took part in and was the club's top scorer for that season.[3] In the1989–90 season he scored 21 league goals for Swindon as well as the winning goal in thesemi-final play-offs againstBlackburn Rovers, and was part of the team that won promotion at Wembley – only to bedemoted due to financial irregularities at the club.[3]
In all he was top scorer for Swindon in every season he was at the club. He wasPlayer of the Year in 1991 and was named in thePFA Team of the Year for Division Two.[4]
In March 1992 Shearer was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £800,000. Despite scoring on his debut, he only played six games for Rovers under his boyhood hero, managerKenny Dalglish,[2] helping the club reach theplayoffs where they were ultimately promoted, before he returned to Scotland at the end of the season,[3] to be replaced at Rovers by his namesake Alan. Although officially signed due to an injury toMike Newell (who coincidentally also later played for Aberdeen), it has been suggested that Rovers only purchased Shearer to weaken Swindon's team in their league battle.[4][2]
The powerfully-built forward signed forAberdeen in 1992 for £500,000, aged 29.[5] After scoring twice on his debut[6] he became popular with the fans and was nicknamed 'Deadly Dunc' for his strike-rate.[2] He formed successful partnerships with other strikers such asEoin Jess,Scott Booth andBilly Dodds during his time atPittodrie.
In November 1995, Shearer won theScottish League Cup with the club, scoring the second goal in the 2–0 win overDundee atHampden Park.[7] He had also appeared in the1992 Scottish League Cup Final[8] and the1993 Scottish Cup Final,[9] when theDons were beaten 2–1 byRangers on both occasions, and featured heavily inLeague campaigns in1993 and1994 which ended with runners-up finishes, again behind Rangers. Shearer made 152 league appearances for Aberdeen, scoring 55 goals.
In 1997, at the age of 35, he returned to his nativeHighlands to joinInverness Caledonian Thistle, where he played for two and a half seasons, making 55 league appearances and scoring 17 goals.
During his time at Aberdeen, Shearer wascapped seven times forScotland between 1994 and 1995, scoring two goals including an important opening strike in an away win overFinland[10] which helped the national sidequalify forEuro 96, although Shearer did not make the squad for that tournament.
The senior team was his first experience of international football, having never played at any age-group level. He achieved a childhood ambition when he played in the national team alongsideJohn McGinlay, a childhood friend also from Fort William.[5]
In season1999–00 he began to concentrate more on coaching than playing, and was in the dugout whenCaley Thistle famously beatCeltic 3–1 in the Scottish Cup. In 2000, he became assistant to then Inverness Caley Thistle managerSteve Paterson, following the departure of former assistant managerAlex Caldwell toElgin City. He continued to be registered as a player (though seldom appeared in the squad) until the end of the 2001–02 season.
In December 2002 both Paterson and Shearer left Inverness to take up management roles at Aberdeen. However, this did not prove to be a happy return toPittodrie for Shearer, as Aberdeen struggled in theSPL and were put out of theScottish Cup at the fourth-round stage byLivingston. Steve Paterson and Duncan Shearer left the club in 2004.
Shearer was appointed as manager ofHighland League sideBuckie Thistle in October 2004. During his reign as manager, he won theAberdeenshire Cup twice and theAberdeenshire Shield once. He was sacked in April 2008, after a disappointing home defeat toCove Rangers effectively ended Buckie's hopes of winning the Highland League championship.[11]
He then became a youth coach at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Shearer and fellow coach, Scott Kellacher, were put in temporary charge of the first-team after managerTerry Butcher moved toHibernian in November 2013.[12]
He released hisautobiography in 2011.[13]
| Club | Season | League | National Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Chelsea | 1983–84 | Second Division | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 0 |
| 1984–85 | First Division | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1985–86 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Total | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Huddersfield Town | 1985–86 | Second Division | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 8 | 7 |
| 1986–87 | 42 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | - | - | 48 | 24 | ||
| 1987–88 | 33 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | 38 | 16 | ||
| Total | 83 | 38 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 | - | - | 94 | 47 | ||
| Swindon Town | 1988–89 | Second Division | 38 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 42 | 16 |
| 1989–90 | 45 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | - | - | 54 | 26 | ||
| 1990–91 | 44 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | - | - | 50 | 23 | ||
| 1991–92 | 37 | 22 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | - | - | 46 | 32 | ||
| Total | 164 | 79 | 9 | 7 | 19 | 11 | - | - | 192 | 97 | ||
| Blackburn Rovers | 1991–92 | Second Division | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 6 | 1 |
| Aberdeen | 1992–93 | Scottish Premier Division | 34 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 27 |
| 1993–94 | 43 | 17 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 54 | 26 | ||
| 1994–95 | 25 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 13 | ||
| 1995–96 | 30 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 7 | ||
| 1996–97 | 20 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 30 | 5 | ||
| Total | 152 | 54 | 18 | 8 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 2 | 194 | 78 | ||
| Inverness Caledonian | 1997–98 | Scottish Second Division | 24 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 28 | 6 |
| 1998–99 | 30 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 33 | 13 | ||
| 1999–2000 | Scottish First Division | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 55 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 62 | 19 | ||
| Career total | 462 | 190 | 37 | 19 | 42 | 32 | 9 | 2 | 550 | 243 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 1994 | 3 | 2 |
| 1995 | 4 | 0 | |
| Total | 7 | 2 | |
Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Shearer goal
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 May 1994 | Nieuw Galgenwaard,Utrecht, Netherlands | Netherlands | 1–3 | 1–3 | Friendly match |
| 2 | 7 September 1994 | Olympiastadion,Helsinki, Finland | Finland | 1–0 | 2–0 | UEFA Euro 1996 Qualifier |
Buckie Thistle
Individual
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |