3rd August 1954

Carshalton

Manager

Originally rejected as a trainee at Aldershot, Gary Peters began his career at Southern League Guildford City before moving on to Reading as a right-back in 1975, winning promotion to Division 3 in his first season. After failing to agree terms on a contract extension, Peters left the club in 1979, having made 156 appearances. A Football League tribunal decided upon a transfer fee of £25,000 as Peters moved to Fulham. After 64 appearances for the club, Peters then joined Wimbledon, who had spent the previous four years moving between the third and fourth divisions, after being elected into the Football League in 1977.

Following his retirement as player, Peters took on roles as assistant manager at Preston North End. Under Peters’ management Preston won promotion to Division Two in 1996. In early 1998, however, with the club sinking back towards Division Three, Peters resigned and David Moyes was promoted to become their new manager. A month later, Peters rejoined Preston as the club's Centre of Excellence Manager. He set about developing the club's Centre of Excellence, nurturing the talents of local 9- to 16-year-olds. Unfortunately, with the Centre of Excellence ticking over, Preston chose to make Peters redundant, in a cost-cutting measure.

Exeter City quickly secured his services and issued him with the challenge – to preserve their league status. Peters lost this challenge, but Exeter lost only three out of thirteen games. With the club in financial turmoil, the chairman and vice-chairman both resigned after they had been arrested as part of an investigation of club finances. Possibly facing penalty for going into administration and having to release a large number of the playing staff, Peters resigned four days later. Subsequently, he joined Everton, where his old colleague David Moyes was now manager, as a scout.