Shilton represented England at the FIFA World Cup in 1982, 1986 (where Diego Maradona scored two famous goals against him) and 1990, and the UEFA European Championship in 1980 and 1988.

[3] He holds the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in world football (1,396), and, with 125 caps, Shilton is also the England national team's most-capped player.

Shilton settled into first team life thereafter, even managing to score a goal at The Dell against Southampton in October 1967 direct from a clearance at the opposite end of the pitch; the Southampton goalkeeper Campbell Forsyth misjudged Shilton's long punt upfield, which, instead of splashing harmlessly in the mud, spun off the pitch and flew over Forsyth's head into the goal.

[9] However, in January 1976 a severe storm caused considerable damage to the Victoria Ground and to pay for the repair work Stoke had to sell off their playing staff.

regarded among his greatest ever – a vicious close-range header from Mick Ferguson seemed destined for the net with Shilton slightly out of position, but he got across to palm it over the bar.

Shilton had another eventful season with Forest, reaching a third consecutive League Cup final, with Wolverhampton Wanderers the opponents at Wembley.

There was no third successive victory, however, a communication error between Shilton and defender David Needham resulted in a collision on the edge of the Forest penalty area, leaving Andy Gray free to tap the ball into the net for the game's only goal.

[citation needed] Forest then reached the European Cup final again in 1980 – as holders they were entitled to defend the trophy and faced SV Hamburg in Madrid.

Forest failed to continue their trophy-winning form while Shilton began what would be a long-standing gambling addiction which would cause considerable strain to his family.

[14] Shilton helped the Derby side of Mark Wright, Dean Saunders and Ted McMinn finish fifth in the league, and they only missed out on competing in the UEFA Cup due to the ban on English clubs in European competition (which ran from 1985 to 1990) arising from the Heysel disaster.

He joined Wimbledon in the Premier League for a short period, as injury cover for the first choice goalkeeper Hans Segers, but did not play a first team game for them.

Bolton lost 2–1, but eventually overcame Wolves in the second leg, Shilton however did not play in this game; Keith Branagan did instead.

With 996 Football League matches to his name, Shilton was anxious to reach 1,000 and he did when he joined Leyton Orient in November 1996, in an exchange deal for 39-year-old Les Sealey.

At this stage, Banks was still England's first choice keeper, but the remaining brace of back-ups from the 1970 World Cup, Peter Bonetti and Alex Stepney, had been cast aside by Ramsey so Shilton could begin to regard himself as his country's number two goalkeeper at the age of 22.

Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence was called up to make his debut a month later for England's opening qualifier for the 1974 World Cup, (a 1–0 win over Wales).

While drawing with Czechoslovakia earned Shilton his tenth cap – as a warm-up to a crucial World Cup qualifier against Poland in Chorzów a week later.

From 1977 new manager Ron Greenwood started to select Shilton as regularly as Clemence, eventually reaching the stage where he made a point of alternating them, seemingly unable to choose.

Clemence had played in the friendlies building up to the competition, but it was Shilton who was selected for the opening group game against France in Bilbao.

By the time they played Mexico in an acclimatisation match prior to the competition, Shilton was 80 games into his England career, having beaten Banks' record for a goalkeeper of 73 caps the previous year against Turkey.

At the World Cup itself, England started slowly, losing the opening group match to Portugal and then drawing against outsiders Morocco, during which time Robson was led off injured and Wilkins was sent off.

In their absences, Shilton was handed the captaincy as England found their form to defeat Poland 3–0 in their final group game – Gary Lineker scored them all – and progress to the second round.

Lineker scored twice and Peter Beardsley once as England went through 3–0 and into a quarter final meeting with Argentina, a match which again would ultimately form part of the legend of Shilton's whole career.

Argentina captain Diego Maradona had been the man of the tournament thus far, but in a tight first half England managed to keep his creativity reasonably at bay.

Shilton and his teammates signalled that Maradona had used his hand – a foul for any player except a goalkeeper – but the Tunisian referee Ali Bin Nasser allowed the goal.

Shortly afterwards, Maradona scored a legitimate individual goal, taking on almost the whole England defence and Shilton before shooting into an empty net.

However, Shilton continued to play for England, featuring in a straightforward and successful qualification campaign for the 1988 European Championships, which were to be held in West Germany.

In June 1989, Shilton broke his old England skipper Bobby Moore's record of 108 appearances for his country when he won his 109th cap in a friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen.

Shilton was an intelligent and efficient goalkeeper, who was regarded above all for his physical presence, handling, positional sense, composure and consistency, as well as his ability to communicate with his teammates, organise his defence, and inspire confidence in his back-line.

[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][excessive citations] However, Shilton also drew criticism in the English media at times for his increasing lack of pace and agility with age in his later career, which along with his timing and relatively modest stature for a goalkeeper, is thought to have limited him when facing penalties, most noticeably in England's penalty shoot-out defeat to eventual champions West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final; indeed, throughout his international career, his penalty–saving record was not particularly impressive, with his only save for England coming against Andreas Brehme of West Germany in 1985.

Shilton has worked with the UK government to raise awareness of associated issues including mental health problems.