Gavin Maguire 1986

Gavin Terence Maguire was born November 24th, 1967 in Hammersmith, London. He joined non-league side Northwood FC's youth team, and made it to the senior side making only 2 appearances before joining Queens Park Rangers as an apprentice. Was a member on the QPR team that played under the Rowdies name in June 1986 during the "Coca-Cola Classic Internation Soccer Series" in Tampa.

He made his full debut for QPR on December 28th, 1986 against Oxford United, as an 18 year old. He would go onto make 40 appearances before being sold to Portsmouth for a fee of £175,000 in January 1989.

In 1992, he would make 3 loan appearances for Newcastle United, before returning to Portsmouth.

On March 25th, 1993 he joined Millwall for a fee of £115,ooo. Was sent to Scarborogh on loan on March 24th, 1994 where he played 2 games. Millwall released him from his contract in May 1994.

He returned to his first club Northwood FC for the 1994-95 season in the Isthmian League Division 3, playing in only 3 games. During his career he had been plagued by injuries. He appeared 7 times for the Welsh National team.
Gavin retired from soccer at the age of 26, he'd had bone grafts and skin grafts and knew it was going to be a long time before he was fully fit so he packed it all in.

After his retirement, he went travelling around America for a year and a half but came back and became a fitness trainer and did this for two years. Then one day a friend suggested he should go into hairdressing. At first Gavin thought his friend was being stupid but he attended a nine-month course and really enjoyed it. He now has his own hairdressing business in Somerset and it is a bit like soccer in as much as it doesn’t feel like work. One of the reasons he left London was because he was known as Gavin Maguire the soccer player where in Somerset, not many people know he was a player.

In 2003, he turned out for the Portsmouth Masters team, in an indoor tournament, but was sent off in the game against local rivals Southampton, for hauling down Matt Le Tissler by the neck, in what looked like a judo move.
He will always be remembered whilst playing for QPR, the "horror tackle" on Tottenham Hotspur's Danny Wilson, which finished the Spurs' player's playing career, which also resulted in a £130,000 compensation payout.