Originally rejected as a trainee at Aldershot, he began his career at Southern League Guildford City before moving on to Reading as a right-back in 1975, winning promotion to Division 3 in his first season.
Between March and August 1979, Gary was one of the Reading back five that kept a clean sheet for 1,103 minutes – a record that stood until broken by Manchester Utd.
After 64 appearances for the club, Peters then joined Wimbledon, who had spent the previous four years moving between the third and fourth divisions, after being elected into the Football League in 1977.
In early 1998, with Preston sinking back towards Division Three, and having finished fifteenth two years running, Peters resigned and David Moyes was promoted to become their new manager.
The club had been promoted out of the Football Conference in the summer of 2004 under Jimmy Quinn but were struggling in the newly titled "League Two", and had been knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Histon.
[3] Peters appointed the much-travelled Mick Wadsworth as his assistant in January 2005, and Shrewsbury finished 21st out of 24 that season, 11 points above the relegated Kidderminster.
[5] Towards the end of the season, a consistently good run of results gave Town a chance of reaching the play-offs, though the club eventually finishing tenth.
Despite being linked with the vacant managerial post at League One Tranmere Rovers, Peters agreed a two-year extension to his contract on 17 May 2006, which now ran until the end of the 2008–09 season.
He finished the 2006–07 season by taking Shrewsbury to the play-off final at the new Wembley Stadium, after knocking out the highly fancied Milton Keynes Dons.