Dave Beasant

Newcastle United However, the 1988 FA Cup final was the last game that Beasant played for Wimbledon. A month later he was sold to Newcastle United for £850,000.

Chelsea Beasant's spell on Tyneside was brief as the Magpies struggled and were finally relegated from the First Division in bottom place. Beasant had left in January 1989 to join Chelsea. He immediately became first choice keeper, replacing Roger Freestone. Between 1981 and 1990 (across most of his time with Wimbledon, the season at Newcastle and the start of his Chelsea spell) he made 394 consecutive league appearances, the second-highest sequence in English football history.

In September 1992, two mistakes in a match against Norwich City led to Chelsea manager Ian Porterfield telling the media that Beasant would never play for the club again, although in fact he returned to the side when Porterfield was sacked later that season.

During the 1993–94 season Beasant sustained an unusual injury when, while making a sandwich in his kitchen, he dropped a 2 kg glass bottle of salad cream on his foot, severing the tendon to his big toe. As a result, he missed eight weeks of the season.

Following the arrival of new manager, Glenn Hoddle, who opted for Dmitri Kharine as his first choice keeper with Kevin Hitchcock in reserve, Beasant was unable to get back into the Chelsea squad and looked for a new club. Beasant made his debut in a 1–0 defeat at Everton on 4 December; despite a run of four defeats, his confidence gradually returned, and he soon became a favourite with The Dell crowd. With the departure of Ian Branfoot and his replacement as manager by Alan Ball, the "Saints" eventually climbed out of the relegation zone, finishing the 1993–94 season one point above relegated Sheffield United. Following Alan Ball's move to Manchester City in the summer of 1995, new manager Dave Merrington preferred Beasant in goal. The team struggled throughout the season, and were never far from the relegation zone, but finished level on points but with a better goal difference than Ball's Manchester City who were relegated. Beasant himself finished the season by being voted the club's Player of the Season. Souness signed Maik Taylor from Barnet in January.

In November 2001 Beasant terminated his contract at Portsmouth and signed for Tottenham Hotspur on a two-month contract.

He played his last competitive game in the 2002–03 season for Brighton & Hove Albion in Division One at the age of 43, although he did spend the 2003–04 season registered as a player with Fulham in the FA Premier League. By then he was the oldest player registered with any professional club in England. He came out of retirement on 17 August 2013 to play for Southern League Division One Central club North Greenford United in a 2–0 defeat against Chalfont St Peter.

Having joined Stevenage as the club's goalkeeping coach in the middle of 2014, Beasant was named as a substitute for an away match at Carlisle United on 11 October 2014, aged 55.

International career Beasant was selected to play two full international matches for England by manager Bobby Robson. The first of Beasant's two England caps came at Wembley Stadium on 15 November 1989 against Italy in a friendly match, where he replaced Peter Shilton as a half-time substitute and kept a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw. The following month on 13 December, also at Wembley, he made his second appearance in a friendly against Yugoslavia, again as a half-time substitute in a 2–1 win for England. He was a member of England's 1990 FIFA World Cup squad, having been called up after David Seaman had to withdraw through injury.

Coaching career By the time of his retirement, Beasant had been appointed as a goalkeeping coach at Fulham in addition to serving as goalkeeping coach for Northern Ireland under former Wimbledon teammate Lawrie Sanchez. Beasant resigned from the Northern Ireland post in 2007 after Sanchez was appointed Fulham manager only for the pair to both be sacked by the club in December 2007.

Beasant was a senior coach at the Glenn Hoddle Academy. He joined in 2008 and worked not only with the academy's goalkeepers, but also outfield players, especially defenders. In August 2012, Beasant was appointed part-time goalkeeper coach at Bristol Rovers. In July 2014, he became goalkeeping coach at Stevenage where he joined his son Sam Beasant. On 25 June 2015, he was appointed as goalkeeping coach at Reading. On 22 December 2018, Beasant was released after the club appointed Jose Gomes to replace Paul Clement as manager.

Career statistics

Honours

Wimbledon Football League Third Division runner-up: 1983–84 Football League Fourth Division: 1982–83 FA Cup: 1987–88 Football League Group Cup runner-up: 1982

Chelsea Full Members Cup: 1990

Nottingham Forest Football League First Division: 1997–98