Born in Evesham, after leaving the British Army, he joined Waterlooville for the start of the 1987–88 season where, after two games for the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the first team and became the club's top goalscorer in the 1987–88 season. One of his goals came in the first round proper of the F.A.Cup against Aylesbury United. He then spent a season at Yeovil Town before, in the summer of 1989, he was signed by Portsmouth, where he then spent the majority of his career, scoring 99 times in 173 league appearances, including Pompey's all-time scoring record of 42 league goals in the 1992–93 season (48 in all competitions) as the club missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League on goals scored. He was known while at Fratton Park as "Corporal Punishment". In 1993 he signed for Aston Villa in the Premier League. He had a good run in the team and scored important goals against Everton, Arsenal and Sheffield United, before leaving on loan in February 1994 to join Wolverhampton Wanderers; this meant he missed out on Villa's victory in the 1994 Football League Cup Final. In December 1994 he joined Sheffield Wednesday, proving to be very popular at the Owls. Whilst at Wednesday he had a second loan spell at Wolves, as well as being loaned to Watford and Portsmouth who he would later rejoin permanently in 1999. At Portsmouth during his loan spell his seven goals in nine matches helped the club avoid relegation to the third tier.