The Beauty Of Beardsley

Chris Dunlavy Waxes Lyrical About the Former Newcastle Utd and England Star…

ASK a Newcastle fan to name the greatest player of the last 30 years and you’d probably be surprised by the answer.

Alan Shearer? He’d be up there, of course. You might even get a few votes for David Ginola or Paul Gascoigne. Maybe Yohan Cabaye for the youngsters.

But I’d bet serious money that the name sitting proudly atop the list would be that of Peter Beardsley.

Pedro, as he was known on the terraces of St James’ Park, played football like no Englishman has since.

The nearest comparison - and this is by no means a stretch - is Lionel Messi. The hunched, ungainly shuffle. The skittering runs, all hops and jerks like the turf was studded with hot coals.

The outrageous feints and dummies that left opponents thrashing at thin air. Even the NHS haircut and misshapen mug (Beardsley was once described as looking like somebody had bumped the photocopier when he was being printed) are reminiscent of the Argentine maestro.

One goal, against Portsmouth in 1984, is the archetypal example. Latching onto a long ball from Chris Waddle, Beardsley first nicks it past the keeper.

Then, with the subtlest of shimmies, he sashays along the byline, putting two defenders on their backsides. “Will he walk it in?” cries a young Martin Tyler. “He does!”

“When Peter dropped his shoulder, half the stadium left,” recalled Gazza, an apprentice at Newcastle in those days. “He just had this way of fooling people.

“I remember one game we were playing Manchester City and Peter’s done a sliding tackle and then dinked it from the edge of the 18-yard box over Joe Corrigan, who was on the six-yard line.

“You knew exactly what he was going to do, but you couldn’t stop him. In today’s game he could have named his own price.”