The SAS once threatened to shoot down Peter Thorne's career before it had begun.

One to watch: Peter Thorne

The young marksman started out with Blackburn Rovers and was on the periphery of the multi-million pound squad assembled with such success by canny Scot Kenny Dalglish.

But in five years at Ewood Park, Thorne was never to taste first team football.

It was perhaps not surprising when you consider England skipper Alan Shearer was shooting Blackburn to Premiership glory, aided and abetted by his partner in crime and the other half of that esteemed SAS strikeforce, Chris Sutton.

Indeed, it was in Blackburn's championship winning season that goal hungry Thorne upped and left, winging his way to Swindon Town and promptly bagging nine goals in his first 20 games.

The following season he made double figures, banging in ten goals in 26 appearances as the Robins took the second division championship at a canter.

With Town back in division one, Thorne was donning his shooting boots again - scoring eight in 31 - and was attracting the eye of the big guns, most notably Leeds United.

But it was to the Potteries that was to prove Thorne's next port of call, in a £500,000 transfer at the beginning of the 1997-98 campaign.

In his first season, and despite Stoke's fall from grace into the second division, he kept up his ratio of a goal in every three games scoring 12 in 36 appearances.

This term he has scored four goals in his last four appearances making it 11 for the season for the Manchester-born 25-year-old.

He will certainly be remembered by the Minstermen following City's 2-0 defeat at the Britannia Stadium back in November.

Back then there was the Little matter of brotherly love on touchline duty but it was Thorne who helped Stoke maintain their place at the top of the table.

He played a key role in the Potter's opening goal on that luckless day for City, knocking the ball across the six-yard box for Richard Forsyth to tap-in.

But by and large it has been a difficult season for Thorne, who has missed large chunks of the campaign through injury.

An ankle problem has seen him sat on the sidelines for long spells of the season while a thigh strain kept him out of the midweek 2-2 draw with Wycombe Wanderers.

Nor has he had a settled strike partner to aid in his plundering. If it's not former Scarborough and Coventry City Bermudan international striker Kyle Lightbourne then he's had to share the goal burden with youngster Dean Crowe.

Stoke certainly looked a better side for his brief but happy recent return. Many of the Potte faithful remain convinced that had he steered clear of injury their disastrous slide from promotion contention would have stalled long ago.

No doubt those same Stoke fans will be hoping Thorne resumes his shooting duty tomorrow to sharpen the Potters' cutting edge in front of goal while puncturing City's hopes of clawing themselves out of the relegation mire.

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