Peter SHILTON

Peter Shilton captained his country again when England returned to action after the World Cup with a friendly in Sweden in September 1986. England lost 1-0 but when the fixture mattered, the performances changed. Shilton kept a clean sheet as England bypassed Northern Ireland with ease in the opening qualifier for the 1988 European Championships, although Bobby Robson, aware of the possibility of Peter's age leaving him more susceptible to injury, used underling Woods in the next qualifier, a 2-0 win over Yugoslavia. Shilton's 90th cap came in the return trip to Northern Ireland - a 2-0 win - and he featured in two of the remaining three qualifiers which smoothed England's passage to the finals in West Germany. The 8-0 win over Turkey in the penultimate game of the group brought Peter his 50th England clean sheet in his 93rd appearance. With six games scheduled between the end of the qualifiers and the finals themselves, Shilton was on course to win his 100th cap in the final warm-up game, but this was scuppered when Woods was given a run out against Israel in the first game. Woods played one more game during the preparation spell, so Shilton went to West Germany with 98 caps, meaning that he was almost certain to reach the magical ton during the finals themselves, although he was naturally quick to point out that such a milestone would be meaningless if England did not perform to the standards expected of them in the finals. Unfortunately for Shilton, this was the case. His 99th appearance was a woeful and embarrassing 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland in Stuttgart - shocking defending saw Shilton dragged out of position as the Irish harried England in the opening ten minutes, and Ray Houghton looped a header over Peter for the only goal. Shilton accepted the applause of the Dusseldorf crowd when the 100th appearance came three days later, but he was beaten three times by a consummate centre forward in Marco van Basten, with Peter helpless to prevent all the goals in a 3-1 defeat. With the tournament dead for England, Robson gave Woods some crucial finals experience in the last group game against the USSR and again questions were asked about Shilton's future. England had been poor but Peter was generally blameless and certainly there was no evidence of any slowing up or diminishing reflexes. Shilton, with one eye on Bobby Moore's caps record, declared himself still available for his country and Robson remained happy to pick him as the qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy loomed. (Matthew Rudd)

Peter Shilton played in all bar one of the friendlies and mini-tournament games - only missing a trip to Saudi Arabia which saw a debut for David Seaman - and the first four qualifiers (three wins and a draw, all with clean sheets), the latter of which - a 3-0 win over Poland at Wembley - saw him equal Moore's record of 108 appearances for England. Four days later, in Copenhagen for a friendly against Denmark, Shilton broke the record and received a standing ovation and a framed goalkeeper's jersey with '109' on the front. He received another ovation in the second half when he was deliberately substituted in order to milk more applause, and Seaman got his second cap as a consequence. With personal goals and records now achieved, there was still a third crack at the World Cup for Shilton to focus upon. In September 1989, days before his 40th birthday, Peter kept a clean sheet as England drew 0-0 with Sweden in their penultimate World Cup qualifier, leaving them with the prospect of getting to the finals in Italy if they could avoid defeat against Shilton's least favourite World Cup opponent, Poland, a month later. This was Peter's 111th England appearance (the photo above is during the game) and being Poland it proved quite hairy, with a thumping 30 yard shot smacking his crossbar and bouncing out in the last seconds of the game.

England hung on to qualify and Shilton took personal pride that a 40 year old goalkeeper had helped his team to the World Cup without conceding a goal. He started the next two games - eventful friendlies against Italy and Yugoslavia - with Dave Beasant coming on as a sub on both occasions as Robson sought to establish his main back-ups to his senior goalkeeper in the run-up to the finals. In 1990, Shilton started all five friendlies, making way for Woods (twice) and Seaman at half-time in the first three, and England were generally impressive, with only a shock home defeat to Uruguay - thus ending the 17 match unbeaten run which stretched back to the first game after the European Championships disaster - putting a spanner in the works. Shilton duly kept a tight grip on his number one jersey as the squad was announced, with Woods and Seaman named as back-ups, although a thumb injury sustained in training after the squad had arrived in Italy saw Dave Beasant called up to replace the unfortunate Seaman. (Matthew Rudd)

Peter Shilton, approaching 41, was going to his third World Cup finals and was, as expected, named in goal by Robson for the opening fixture against the Republic of Ireland in Cagliari. The wild Sardinian gale ruined the game as a spectacle and Shilton was beaten by a vicious low drive from Kevin Sheedy which equalised Gary Lineker's early tap-in. Bearing in mind Peter's flawlessness in qualifying, Sheedy's goal was the first Shilton had conceded in World Cup football since Diego Maradona waltzed past almost the whole England team in Mexico City four years earlier. The game ended 1-1 and Robson gave Shilton the insurance of an extra central defender for the next game against Holland, which was goalless and gave Peter his 120th cap. Egypt therefore needed to be beaten - in a similar scenario to Poland four years earlier - and Shilton, wearing the captain's armband in the absence of Bryan Robson through injury, was a virtual spectator as England spent most of the game in the Egyptian half, although only a header from Mark Wright breached their defence. It was enough, and England were Bologna-bound for a second round clash with Belgium. Shilton kept out a number of Belgian chances and saw another pair hit his woodwork as England rode their luck and went through in the closing moments of extra time thanks to David Platt's life-changing volley. Cameroon were next in the quarter-finals and Peter watched an Emmanuel Kunde penalty fly past him on the hour to level up at 1-1, then dived at the feet of Eugene Ekeke four minutes later as Cameroon counter-attacked, only for the clever striker to lift the ball over the diving Shilton and into the top corner. England rallied and Lineker stuck away two penalties to win it and take Peter further than he'd gone at his two previous World Cups - the semi-finals. Shilton made some stunning saves and again relied a little on his woodwork as West Germany made him leap around his six yard box with regularity, but it was only a manic deflection off Paul Parker's shin from Andreas Brehme's free kick which beat him in the end. Lineker's late equaliser took the game into extra time - the third time in a row for England - and then the penalties loomed.

Shilton had only ever saved one England penalty, and Bobby Robson later admitted that he'd kept back his permitted third substitution in order to keep the option of using Beasant open, as the Chelsea keeper had a better record on saving penalties. Ultimately, Peter faced the German spot kicks and picked all five out of his net, such was their efficiency. Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle were not so lucky and England were out. With the captain's armband on, Shilton played in the third-place play-off game against Italy - making a silly ball-rolling error to let Roberto Baggio open the scoring in a 2-1 Italy win - to bring up a total of 125 caps and then finally announced his retirement from the international scene (the photo above shows him waving a final goodbye to the England fans after the Italy game) after a remarkable 20 years, 125 caps (including 15 as captain), 66 clean sheets, three World Cups and two European Championships. Shilton spans two generations of England footballers, playing with World Cup heroes at the beginning and nearly becoming one himself at the end. So much happened in between, good and bad, but the main undercurrent of it all was that perfectionism was the mainspring of Shilton's lengthy England career. What he had in ability he complemented with the equivalent in standards, and that made him the most special of England players. The caps record will quite possibly be broken in Shilton's lifetime but the player who eventually does so will have so much to live up to. (Matthew Rudd)