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Before the start of the 1979/80 Division One season Manchester City
manager Malcolm Allison had decided to dispense with the services of
some of the club's established internationals and bring some fresh blood
into the club, being given a free rein by Chairman Peter Swales to go
on an unprecedented spending spree. He had paid Preston North End £750,
000 for Michael Robinson, £250,000 for teenager Steve MacKenzie from
Crystal Palace and would later break the British transfer record when he
bought Steve Daley from Wolves for an eye-popping £1.5 million. But
there were also more than a few raised eyebrows when he agreed to pay
Wrexham £300, 000 for 27-year old striker Bobby Shinton, the Welsh club
holding out for an exorbitant fee for a player who was out of contract
in the days of pre-Bosman transfers.
Born in West Bromwich in the
West Midlands Shinton had helped Wrexham achieve promotion to the
Second Division only twelve months earlier, but prior to that had never
played his football out of the bottom two divisions of English football
in spells with both Walsall and Cambridge United. He had, however, been a
regular marksman at all three clubs and Allison was convinced that he
could make the step up to the top-flight.
The enigmatic Allison
then made him wait until October 6th to make his debut when he played in
a goalless draw with Arsenal at Highbury (the photo above is during the game),
but he kept his place four days later when Middlesbrough were beaten
1-0 at Maine Road with a goal from Pole Kazimierz Deyna helping the
Blues into a mid-table position. With the manager chopping and changing
the team at will in a bid to find his best formation, Shinton was then
left out of the side for the following two months before being recalled
in the run-up to Christmas.
He was then given a run of three games as
the team notched up victories over Derby County (3-0) and Everton (2-1)
before drawing 1-1 at home to Stoke City on Boxing Day. Despite missing a
4-1 defeat at Brighton the following week he came back into the side
for the third round FA Cup tie at Fourth Division Halifax Town on
January 5th, a game in which City were on the end of a humiliating
giant-killing act as they lost 1-0. This would turn out to be the last
game that Bobby would play for the club as he was then sent out on loan
to Third Division Millwall, where he scored three goals in five games,
before being transferred to Newcastle United for a fee of £175, 000 in
March 1980, having made just six league and cup appearances in his time
at Maine Road where he had failed to live up to expectations.
He
then spent a couple of years at St James' Park before returning to
Millwall where he left professional football at the end of the 1982/83
season, agreeing with manager George Graham to cancel his contract by
mutual consent. He later became player-manager at non-league Worcester
City and also had short spells at Blyth Spartans, Weymouth and Malvern
Town before finally calling time on his playing career to run his own
double glazing business. (David Redshaw).
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