 Born 11th
November 1976 in Hammersmith.Position:
midfielder or left-winger.
Lincoln
City career: 226+(36) appearances and 22 goals
between January 1999 - June 2005.
Clubs:
Tottenham, Lincoln City, Peterborough United and Dagenham
& Redbridge.
Peter
Gain, along with Neale Fenn, originally joined
Lincoln City in January 1999 in a double loan
move from Tottenham Hotspur. They were hailed as
potential saviours for they were expected to lead
Lincoln to Division Two safety. That though did
not happen; not through their fault, but because
both hardly played. This led to many a
discussion, not least from Tottenham's Director
of Football David Pleat, asking why the pair were
not selected for The Imps' first team.
Gain,
despite not playing first team football, decided
to try his luck permanently at Lincoln and signed
for £15,000 in March 1999. At the time, Gain was
a regular in the Tottenham reserve side but he
was unable to break into the first team even
though he had
been a member of Tottenham's youth side that lost
the 1995 Youth Cup on penalties.
Gain, during the
course of the 1999/2000 season, was in and out
of the Lincoln first team as then manager John
Reames struggled to decide on Gain's best
position. In the end, he decided that
left-midfield was best and following Lee
Philpot's departure in summer 2000, Gain become a
regular in The Imps' first team.
He
was tipped for greater things and was linked to
Stockport County, then of the First Division, in
September 2001. As his Lincoln City career
progressed, he found himself playing at left-back
in Alan Buckley's team. This handily made room for Alan's
son Adam to play in the vacant left-wing spot.
When Keith
Alexander took over from Alan Buckley, he opted
for a 5-2-3 formation. This placed Gain in
central midfield, which is not his best position.
Hence for three seasons, his form was
inconsistent but on his day, Gain proved that
he was a match winner because his skill can
create goals from nothing.
Gain
left Lincoln in controversial circumstances in
July 2005 when he joined Peterborough United
under the Bosman ruling. Alexander claimed that
Gain had verbally agreed a new deal but then
returned to ask for more money. That money was
not forthcoming, hence he joined Peterborough.
Ironically,
a year later, Alexander took over at Peterborough
which placed a question mark over Gain's future
because of the mini row that occurred when Gain
left Lincoln. Alexander was quick to state that
was not a problem between him and Gain leading to
Gain retaining his first team place. However, by
January 2008, Alexander had been sacked by
Peterborough and Gain had lost his first team
place due to the change in manager. It was
decided therefore that Peterborough would release
Gain from the remainder of his contract.
Gain
was linked with a return to Lincoln City but this
was a non-starter as Gain wanted to move closer
to London due to family reasons. Football League
newcomers Dagenham & Redbridge were quick to
sign him and he repaid that faith by helping to
secure Dagenham's Football League status in 2008.
The 2008/09 season saw Dagenham come close to
winning a play-off place with Gain being
instrumental in their season.
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