Peter Beardsley - World Cup Hero!

Rob remembers when England's saviour was a Black and White hero.

The World Cup is almost upon us and the recent unveiling of the England squad has led to lots of comments - some positive, probably more negative and, from a Newcastle viewpoint, some bafflement.

Personally, I think Livramento and Gordon are very, very lucky indeed to be in the squad. I know Livramento can cover both full back positions well and arguably has played better for us as a left back than as a right back but, after the current season he’s had, that might just mean he’s got two good legs to injure instead of one.

Gordon hasn’t played for nearly two months and for good reason. There are several English players who can run forward, stop, refuse to take on the full back, turn around and pass back ad nauseam. Most of the Man. City and Arsenal teams for a start. So I think Lewis Hall, Morgan Gibbs-White, Phil Foden and even Cole Palmer can feel very aggrieved that they’re not in the final squad ahead of our glorious duo.

Similarly, Harry McGuire will feel unhappy - in fact, has very stroppily stated that he is unhappy - to be left out for Dan Burn, based on previous tournament experience. However, Burn is pretty solid and we just might need someone to play left back when Nico Reilly gets injured and Livramento gets immediately crocked when replacing him. Burn at left back in the World Cup! It’s what dreams are made of…

From my point of view, the fact that we’re even debating which Newcastle players should be in the final squad is a feat in itself! The first England match I remember is England 1-0 Italy in 1977. Even as a 7 year old, I knew that Newcastle players didn’t trouble the scorer for international games very often. Keegan scored but we couldn’t claim him then! In fact, we couldn’t claim him at all because Bobby Robson dropped him for England when Keegan signed for us. For more or less the next decade, the only international I remember playing for us was David McCreery for Northen Ireland, so World Cups were not something that would cause much stress to our coaching staff during the summer.

It has often been said that formative memories stay with you the longest. That’s definitely the case with sport. I haven’t seen a better cricket team than Clive Lloyd’s West Indies, a better rugby team than New Zealand or a better athlete than Daley Thompson. Though there probably have been.

Equally, although I vaguely remember bits of the 1978 World Cup - mainly Peruvians belting the ball past Alan Rough & Archie Gemmill refusing to pass the ball when beating a whole schoolyard of Dutch defenders - it is the 1982 World Cup that I remember most vividly, closely followed by Mexico 86 & Italia 90.

When the inevitable Top 10 World Cup games appears over the next few weeks, Italy 3-2 Brazil (Paulo Rossi hat trick) & West Germany 3-3 France (Germany winning on penalties after their keeper committed ABH/GBH/every other violent crime you wish to think of on a French player & didn’t get sent off) will always be top of my list. They were fantastic matches for a 12 year old to watch! And they installed in me the key thing to remember when watching football. The team you want to win seldom does and will usually be cheated out of it so that you’ll cry.

They’d be followed by France v Brazil 86 and England v Belgium, Cameroun, and West Germany in 1990. In fact, if you ask me for anything post 2002 I’d be really struggling! France v Argentina in 2018 & the last Final would make the cut but not much else. However, that is just basically me getting old because my son would be able to list many a great game since 2010. Not many involving England though….

However, by in 1982, England did have a vaguely decent team and by 1986, even more importantly, had an actual, current Newcastle player in the squad! Absolutely unbelievable!!! I’d already been excited enough (that’s how dull my life was in 1985) when Chris Waddle got picked for the England u-21 team as an over-age player at 25 years old! However, he soon buggered off to Spurs, so he didn’t count. However, Peter Beardsley got picked away to USSR in 1986 and set up Waddle after a trademark sliding tackle on the keeper followed by a killer pass. The London-centric press raved about someone we’d known was a genius for the past three seasons and I was looking forward to the World Cup all of a sudden.

I was questioning my sanity after staying up for 11pm kick offs bang slap in the middle of my ‘O’ level exams. Defeat to Portugal was followed by the worst match I’d ever seen (0-0 v Morocco. There’s been plenty since…) and it put England on the verge of an early bath. These things mattered to a 16 year old and it hurt!

Playing ‘big’ Mark Hately up front with ‘speedy’ Gary Lineker was getting us nowhere. Neither was playing the genuinely great Bryan Robson in midfield with the very dull Ray Wilkins. Sadly, Robson did his shoulder against Morocco and Wilkins did his greatest service in national colours by chucking the ball very softly at the ref and got sent off. I was surprised he hadn’t thrown it sideways.

This led to the national press going into meltdown at the fact the team was falling apart but we Newcastle fans knew the cavalry was coming to save the day! Peter Reid (honest, he was a decent player!), Glen Hoddle (a truly classy player) and most important, Peter Beardsley of NUFC fame!!! Now it was time to get serious.

Win or go home against Poland. After a few early scares and the very, very great Barry Davies absolutely slagging off the England defence for passing straight to the opposition in a time before this happened every week with the ‘playing out from the back’ cobblers, England got into gear. Key player in the first two goals?! P. Beardsley esq.

Nice link up play to get the ball moving for Lineker’s first and then an absolute genius half valley pass on the turn for Steve Hodge to cross and Lineker to score first time on the run. Still possibly the greatest England goal I’ve ever seen! It must be because Barry Davies was pronouncing it as a ‘magnificent goal!!!!’ and Jimmy Hill was yelling in the background. Lineker scored again, we were through & the Lineker/ Beardsley partnership was up & running! Pace, skill & an alarming lack of teeth! Beautiful!

Even better, Beardsley scored in the last 16 match against Paraguay. Keeper fumbled a very good shot from Terry Butcher of all people, and Beardsley pounced with a side foot finish that we’d seen many a time! I recognised who’d scored in a millisecond and far quicker than John Motson. That only reinforced my belief in my future career as a top notch football commentator. Definitely not a history & PE teacher for 30 years. Anyway….

The Hand of God knocked us out in the quarters but not before Beardsley had pounced on a poor Argie back pass, rounded the keeper near the corner flag and shot on the turn left footed just into the side netting! Superb stuff! Pity it was just the wrong side of the net as, amongst other things, Steve Hodge might not have made a fortune from swapping shirts with Maradona.

That was it for the next four years! A great player in the England team from Newcastle! Well, he only played for one more season but he did come back to us & was even better. Lineker/Beardsley were reincarnated into Cole/Beardsley! Also, the next World Cup saw England in the semi finals! I couldnt believe what I was seeing! I took great pride in telling my housemates in Manchester that Newcastle were providing three of our best players - Waddle, Beardsley, and Gascoigne! They kept reminding me none of them actually played for us anymore but that’s just because they were bloody miseries. World Cup penalty disaster followed but it was a great month to follow England.

So Peter Beardsley is my all time England hero! However, that might change when Dan Burn bangs in a 30-yard header against France! Mind you, the thrill will be short lived, as Harry Kane then misses a last minute penalty, despite scoring 427 since his last miss. In the previous World Cup. In the last minute….

Enjoy the tournament!!

Rob Douglas