which Arsenal captain Tony Adams missed through injury. In his autobiography 11 years later, Adams said that he had followed the progress of the game on Ceefax and mistakingly believed that the Shearer who scored the hat-trick was Duncan Shearer. Swindon Town He was approached by Lou Macari, who offered a club record fee of £250,000 for Shearer to join Swindon in 1988, and fill the striker position following Dave Bamber and Jimmy Quinn exiting the Wiltshire club. 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. In the 1989–90 season he scored 21 league goals for Swindon as well as the winning goal in the semi-final play-offs against Blackburn Rovers, and was part of the team that won promotion at Wembley – only to be demoted due to financial irregularities at the club. In all he was top scorer for Swindon in every season he was at the club. He was Player of the Year in 1991 and was named in the PFA Team of the Year for Division Two. Blackburn Rovers 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, manager Kenny Dalglish, helping the club reach the playoffs where they were ultimately promoted, before he returned to Scotland at the end of the season, to be replaced at Rovers by his namesake Alan. Although officially signed due to an injury to Mike 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. Aberdeen The powerfully-built forward signed for Aberdeen in 1992 for £500,000, aged 29. After scoring twice on his debut he became popular with the fans and was nicknamed 'Deadly Dunc' for his strike-rate. He formed successful partnerships with other strikers such as Eoin Jess, Scott Booth and Billy Dodds during his time at Pittodrie. In November 1995, Shearer won the Scottish League Cup with the club, scoring the second goal in the 2–0 win over Dundee at Hampden Park. He had also appeared in the 1992 Scottish League Cup Final and the 1993 Scottish Cup Final, when the Dons were