Former Blackburn Rovers striker and legend Alan Shearer co-holds the record for the number of hat tricks in a season but what a goalscoring machine the man was!
Vital Football member dazza 71 made this comments recently:
“How many hat tricks did he get in Total for Blackburn? Didn’t he score 30 odd in 3 consecutive seasons?“
As we all know Shearer did indeed score thirty plus goals in three consecutive seasons for Rovers. Had it not been for injury it would have been four! I knew that he scored A LOT of goals for Rovers but until I went investigating I didn’t fully realise just how many he had scored and how many of these where hat tricks.
1992-1993 Season – Debut Season
In his debut season with Rovers Shearer scored 22 League and Cup goals by the end of Boxing Day 1992. In the match on that day with Leeds United Shearer and Rovers got a very unwelcome Christmas present…
Shearer snapped his right anterior cruciate ligament meaning he missed the rest of that season, the final 29 League and Cup matches. How many more goals would he have scored? It’s frightening to think as he was on for at least 50 had he maintained his strike rate…
1993-1994 Season
Shearer was gradually be eased back into the first team following his eight month injury absence making his opening appearances of the season as a substitute, often late on, starting his first game nine matches into the season.
Shearer scored his first Rovers hat trick against Leeds United on 23rd October 1993. So a happy return against the team whom he had suffered his serious and what could have been career threatening injury some ten months prior. The hat trick was part of an incredible 34 League and Cup goals that season.
1994-1995 Season – Championship Season
Proving that the starts to the 1992-1993 season and the amazing goals return of the previous one were not a fluke, as his lethal partnership with new signing Chris Sutton began Shearer scored a hatful of goals once again.
Hat trick’s numbers two (Queen Park Rangers), three (West Ham United) and four (Ipswich Town) were to be scored by the free scoring Rovers hero as he went on to end the season with a phenomenal 38 League and Cup goals.
1995-1996 Season – Final Season
His fourth and final season at Ewood Park again saw him score an amazingly high number of goals including an incredible five hat tricks, an amount that equalled John Southworth’s (1890-1891) and Andy McEvoy’s (1963-1964) records for the number of hat tricks in a season. He again scored thirty plus goals with his tally of 36 in the League and Cup.
Hat tricks numbers five (Coventry), six (Nottingham Forest), seven (West Ham United, second successive season with a hat trick against the Hammers!), eight (Bolton Wanderers) and finally nine (Tottenham Hotspur) saw him end his Ewood Career with 130 goals in 171 appearances. An amazing strike rate of 0.76 goals per game, better than a ratio of a goal every other game!
Having missed the last few games of the 1995-1996 season his final Rovers appearance came against Wimbledon (now Milton Keynes Dons) on 17th April 1996.
A move to Newcastle United for a then transfer record of £15 million took place after The 1996 European Championships which were held in England, in which Shearer starred alongside Teddy Sheringham in a tournament that England SHOULD have won.
So 27 of Shearer’s 130 goals came in hat tricks for Rovers, NINE of them. This is who they came against and when.
#1 – Verses Leeds United (a) 3-3 draw, 23rd October 1993 (second season)
#2 – verses QPR (h) 4-0 win, 26th November 1994 (third season)
#3 – verses WHU (h) 4-2 win, 2nd January 1995 (third season)
#4 – verses Ipswich (h) 4-1 win, 28th January 1995 (third season)
#5 – verses Coventry (h) 5-1 win, 23rd September 1995 (fourth season)
#6 – verses Forest 7-0 win, 18th November 1995 (fourth season)
#7 – verses WHU (h) 4-2 win, 2nd December 1995 (fourth season)
#8 – verses Bolton (h) 3-2 win, 3rd February 1996 (fourth season)
#9 – verses Spurs (a) 3-2 win, 16th March 1996 (fourth season)
As everyone knows Shearer went on to score incredible amounts of League and Cup goals per season even after his time with Rovers often finishing with at least 20 plus per season with Newcastle United. Although I’m not certain I think he may have scored 30 plus again in his debut season with the Toon in the 1996-1997 season.
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