Shaun Whalley

Shaun James Whalley (born 7 August 1987) is an English footballer who currently plays as a winger or striker for Shrewsbury Town.

Pre-Shrewsbury career
Whalley was born in Prescot, Merseyside and grew up supporting Liverpool. He was spotted by Norwich City scouts while playing youth football for local teams. He would go on to join the academy set up at The Canaries before joining Southport academy. He made his senior debut for Chester City in 2004. In 2005, Whalley moved down the league pyramid and signed for Runcorn FC Halton before joining Witton Albion in 2006. During his time at Witton, he joined Accrington Stanley on loan before signing for them permanently in 2007. A move to Wrexham in 2008 followed and a subsequent loan move to Southport in 2009. Later that year, Whalley made the permanent move back to non-league, signing for Droylsden before signing for Hyde in 2010 where he spent a year until 2011, where he re-signed for Southport. In 2013, Whalley signed for Luton Town and joined AFC Telford United on loan in 2014. He left The Hatters in 2015 by mutual consent.

STFC career
During his time at Shrewsbury, Whalley has become a fans' favourite.

Following his departure from Luton, Whalley signed for Town on 6 June 2015. At the time of his arrival, Town has just been promoted back to League One. During his first few games of his Town career, Whalley would only make sporadic substitute appearances and wouldn't make a league start until 28 December 2015 where he scored a last-minute winner in a 1–2 victory away at Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road. The following month, Whalley would score another late winner, this time to secure another 1–2 win away at Burton Albion. He finished his first season with the club with seven goals in all competitions.

The 2016–17 season would see Whalley pick up a persistent thigh injury that would end up limiting his first-team involvement. During his time on the sidelines, there was a change in management. He scored his first goal of the season on 13 November 2016, scoring deep in injury time to seal a 2–0 victory at home to Oxford United, new manager Paul Hurst's first home game in charge. Under Hurst, Whalley became a first-team regular as Town narrowly avoided relegation to League Two for a second time. May 2017 saw Whalley sign a two-year contract extension. During the famous 2017–18 season, Whalley featured in 58 matches in all competitions, scoring 12 goals. He started in both the EFL Trophy final against Lincoln City and the play-off final against Rotherham United, in which Town came runners-up on both occasions.

During the 2018–19 season, Whalley made his 150th appearance for the club. In April 2019, he would sign another two-year contract extension.

On 4 February 2020, Whalley scored in front of the travelling Town fans in an FA Cup replay against his boyhood club Liverpool, only for the goal to be disallowed after a VAR review for offside against Scott Golbourne.