Burnley FC and QPR hit the jackpot with striker signing, he delivered for both: View | OneFootball

Striker Charlie Austin has scored goals wherever he's been, non more so than during prolific spells with Burnley and Queen's Park Rangers.

Charlie Austin has been one of English football's more prolific goalscorers at various points across his 15 years in the professional game.

The striker is appreciated by supporters of all of his former clubs, but perhaps none more so than at Swindon Town, Burnley, and QPR, and the latter two certainly got the very best out of the Hungerford-born forward.

Austin rose to prominence in 2009, when he joined League One Swindon Town following a successful trial, which came on the back of the striker scoring goals aplenty for non-league side Poole Town.

The former Reading youngster, who had previously had spells with Hungerford Town and Kintbury Rangers, took to the higher level magnificently, finding the net with regularity as Danny Wilson's Robins made the third-tier play-offs.

Though Swindon would miss out on promotion, narrowly losing the 2010 final to Millwall, Austin's good form continued into the next campaign, and by Christmas the Robins were fighting off strong interest from higher league clubs for the potent striker's services.

Austin averaged almost a goal every two games for Burnley and QPR

Late in the 2011 January transfer window, Championship club Burnley won the race for Austin's signature, the all-action striker joining on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

He carried on where he'd left off in his new surroundings, becoming just as prolific at the higher level and, ultimately, scoring 44 times in 90 Clarets appearances over two seasons at Turf Moor.

Despite coming close to a move elsewhere, Austin signed for fellow Championship side QPR in the summer of 2013.

Joining the likes of Andrew Johnson and Bobby Zamora in attacking options for Harry Redknapp's side, the former Swindon striker again quickly made himself at home in West London, helping his side to promotion in his first season and earning the opportunity to play Premier League football for the first time at the age of 25.

Initially, that would be for just one year, as the Hoops finished bottom of the table in 2015 and were subsequently relegated back to the second-tier.

Austin had shown he was more than capable at the top level, however, and when returning Premier League side Southampton came in for the striker in the 2016 January window, the 27-year-old departed for the south coast, having made himself a firm favourite with the Rangers faithful and scoring the bulk of his 61 goals for the club during that three-year stay; though a few of them were added during a later second spell back at Loftus Road.

The forward, whose strong off both feet and is an aerial threat, kept up a decent goal-scoring ratio over three years with Southampton, before doing likewise at West Bromwich Albion, before his QPR return and a brief spell in Australia with Brisbane Roar.

While the striker's career was winding down a little by that point, Austin had proved himself as one of the era's best EFL strikers: one that didn't look out of place in the top-flight when he got the chance to play at that level.

2022 Swindon Town return preceded a drop back to non-league for Austin

On his return from Australia at the end of 2022, Austin re-signed for his first professional club, Swindon.

Scoring on his second debut in a 5-0 home victory over Grimsby Town, Austin would spend the next 18 months with the League Two side, where his quality and experience saw him carry on finding the net regularly.

Now 35-years-old, and having been released by the Robins at the end of last season, Austin joined Hampshire non-league outfit AFC Totton over the summer, where he's now back among the goals in the Southern League Premier Division South.

There's little doubt he'll be prolific once more at that level, just as he was in the Championship and Premier League with Burnley and QPR, whose respective decisions to sign the striker over the last 13 years or so saw them hit the footballing jackpot.