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With the sudden £2,100,000 departure of Teddy Sheringham to Tottenham
Hotspur early in the 1992-93 season, Brian Clough turned to the much
travelled striker Gary Bannister to partner his son Nigel in the Forest
attack. Bannister had been a regular goalscorer during his career but,
at 32, Forest fans could have been forgiven for thinking it was merely a
short-term solution. Bannister's scoring record in his early days,
whilst at Sheffield Wednesday and Queen's Park Rangers, was impressive
enough but he was going nowhere at West Bromwich Albion when Clough
stepped in to take him to the City Ground.
Things started well enough
with a brace of goals on his Forest debut, albeit in a 5-3 defeat at
Oldham Athletic, after coming on for the soon to be departed Sheringham.
That loss was part of a run of seven straight defeats and it was not
until his tenth League game in a Forest shirt that Gary enjoyed the
sweet taste of victory. It is never easy for a new player to come into a
struggling team but, to his credit, Bannister battled away and added to
his goal tally with strikes against Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday
in consecutive games in September. As the season wore on the Forest
faithful were understandably becoming more and more restless at the lack
of a big-money striker arrival. That was not Bannister's fault,
however, and he continued to give his all for the club during the
remainder of the campaign, finishing with eight goals from his 31 League
appearances.
The arrival of new manager Frank Clark in the summer saw
many changes at the City Ground and the Warrington-born striker was soon
on his way to the Potteries to join Stoke City. (David Scranage)
1978–1981 Coventry City 22 (3)
1980 Detroit Express (loan) 22 (10)
1981–1984 Sheffield Wednesday 118 (55)
1984–1988 Queens Park Rangers 136 (56)
1988–1990 Coventry City 43 (11)
1990–1992 West Bromwich Albion 72 (18)
1992 Oxford United (loan) 10 (2)
1992–1993 Nottingham Forest 31 (8)
1993 Stoke City 15 (2)
1993–1994 Hong Kong Rangers
1994–1995 Lincoln City 29 (7)
1995–1996 Darlington 41 (10)
After retiring he moved to St Ives, Cornwall becoming involved in hotel maintenance and property development. He played for and coached Porthleven in the South Western Football League for several seasons. After about ten years in Cornwall, Bannister and family returned to the Midlands and a job in hotel maintenance in Birmingham.
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