Dave Beasant's reputation as a goalkeeper who could save anything on a good day and nothing on a bad one was a long way off when he helped Wimbledon win the FA Cup and kickstarted his own sudden rise to fame after many years as a lower league stopper of little grace. He was talked of in international terms after moving to Newcastle afterwards, and especially when he returned to London with Chelsea a matter of months later, but ultimately he was fourth at best behind Peter Shilton, Chris Woods and David Seaman.
Bobby Robson was intrigued, however, and put Beasant in his squads for much of the warm-up period prior to Italia 90, introducing him as a sub for Shilton in the last two matches of the 1980s - a 0-0 draw with Italy in which England destroyed their opponents and Beasant barely got his gloves sweaty; and a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia. Robson chose to stick with his favoured three when he selected his squad, but then Seaman suffered a broken finger in the training camp and Beasant was summoned. He never got a sniff of a chance, although Robson admitted that he considered throwing him in goal during the last seconds of extra time and in preparation for the penalty shoot-out against West Germany in the semi-final because his record of saving spot kicks was so good. It would have been an interesting tactic but it didn't happen in the end, and Beasant was never asked back by Graham Taylor after the fuss died down. (Matthew Rudd) |