Over Easter, I decided it
was time to have one of those infrequent blitzes on the mountain of worthless
music and football related rubbish I’ve accumulated over the years, in the
guise of memorabilia that “might come in useful.” Raking through a few cardboard
boxes of crap, sorting the gig set-lists and team line-ups from the blurred
photos of bands and grounds, I came across a letter in a Southampton FC
envelope, postmarked February 1998. Curiosity got the better of me and I
postponed my ethical cleansing for a delve inside. Turns out it was a response
from John Beresford to a note I’d sent him, thanking him for his time on
Tyneside and wishing him all the best for the future.
Now, if you’ll ignore the
question as to why a 33 year old bloke was writing to a footballer he’d never
met, you can’t fail to be impressed by the fact the letter was clearly typed
and signed by Beresford himself. Fair play to the bloke for that and fair play
to him for making no bones about the fact he loved the North East and played
his best football with Newcastle United, because his respect and affection for
the club and the region was reciprocated by all fans of the Mags. I’ve
genuinely never heard a Newcastle fan with a bad word for Beresford or his
understudy at left-back, Robbie Elliott.
Kevin Keegan arrived as
Newcastle manager in February 1992, with the situation looking hopeless.
However, in those far off, halcyon days, pluck and courage were more important
than tactics, meaning he could persuade the shower he’d inherited they were
good enough to stay up. Amazingly this worked, but once survival was assured,
Keegan overhauled the squad. For someone whose reputation was based on
reckless, blood and thunder, attacking football, it is a surprise to note his
first permanent signings were Barry Venison, Brian Kilcline and Beresford. The
latter, unknown to me during his Man City and Barnsley days, arrived from
Portsmouth, where he found fame for missing the crucial penalty when Pompey
lost to Liverpool after a replay in an FA Cup semi-final. More pertinently,
from a Tyneside perspective, he’d been in the Portsmouth team that lost 1-0 to
Newcastle the week previous, which effectively kept us up.
Beresford had been tipped
to sign for Liverpool, but a problem with his medical stalled the deal and
Keegan brought him to Tyneside instead. £600,000 was a lot of money for us at
the time, but Beresford was worth every penny. The 1992/1993 season was a
memorable one; Champions with 96 points, Newcastle put in some great
performances all across the pitch. Beresford played in 45 league games, scoring
once (in a 6-0 win over the Tykes at SJP in April) and even got an England
call-up in March; though Graham Taylor opted to play Andy Sinton in the number
3 shirt instead. Such recognition was thoroughly merited as, despite his lack
of inches, Beresford had a storming campaign, haring down the wing and slinging
in crosses for David Kelly and Andy Cole to greedily gobble up. For the second
successive year, Beresford was selected for the PFA Second Division Team of the
Season by his fellow professionals. The future looked bright.
1993/1994 saw Newcastle
dubbed “The Entertainers” by Sky TV, as we ended a debut top-flight campaign in
third spot. Sadly, a nagging groin injury restricted Beresford to a mere 7
appearances, making little impact on the nation’s collective consciousness.
Thankfully, he was back to his best in the following year, when Newcastle
United hared out of the blocks, only to tail off into a disappointing sixth
place. Keegan again rebuilt, bringing in the likes of David Ginola and Les
Ferdinand for a tilt at the title.
Beresford played out of
his skin for the first 8 months of the 1995/1996 campaign, as the Mags
established a seemingly unassailable 14 point lead at the top. Sadly, a series
of poor away displays and the relentless march of Manchester United,
culminating in Keegan’s “Love it! Just love it!” explosion on television after
a win at Elland Road, meant the impossible dream wasn’t to be. However, NUFC
fans had detected a gathering storm before that; Beresford was blamed by Keegan
for not closing down his man in a desperately tense 1-0 home win over Villa.
Instead of accepting his manager’s word, Beresford bit back and blamed Ginola;
the famously sensitive Keegan wasn’t having that and hailed Beresford off for
Robbie Elliott after only 18 minutes. It was the last we saw of him that
season.
Despite the bravado
involved in signing Shearer in summer 1996, the reality was Keegan was
finished. If he’d left then, we’d have got Bobby Robson earlier. Instead,
Keegan left in January 1997 and Kenny Dalglish arrived. This was initially good
news for Beresford, as he came back into the team at the expense of Elliott,
who was sold to Bolton at the end of a season where Dalglish had somehow managed
to avoid a post-Keegan slump and finish second.
Being runners-up
parachuted NUFC into the Champions’ League qualifiers, where Beresford suddenly
found his goalscoring touch. Having not found the back of the net since that
penalty against Barnsley, Beresford hit both in a 2-1 victory over Croatia
Zagreb that allowed us to progress to the group stages, where he grabbed
another in a 2-2 away to Dynamo Kyiv. Not only that, he got the winner in a 1-0
victory over Villa and the equaliser in a draw against Leicester, both at home.
You’d think that was his place at the club secure, but Dalglish had other
ideas. Having sold Elliott, he bought the ageing Stuart Pearce and the cowardly
Alessandro Pistone to compete for the number 3 shirt. The best left back at the
club was being squeezed out.
Hence, unwillingly,
Beresford made his way to Southampton. It went well at first, but a cruciate
injury sustained in the opening game of the 1998/1999 season curtailed his time
on the south coast and he retired at the end of 2000/2001, having made only 2
further appearances. It was an anticlimactic ending for a talented,
wholehearted and committed player, who is still a regular in the region at
talk-ins, expressing forthright opinions on the club he still feels a strong connection
with.
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