Jimmy Hill: Anyway, sophistication or not, after that extraordinary year of achievement, you went up to Newcastle for nearly a B#1m. B#850,000 in fact, which was huge in those days. Did that frighten you?

Dave Beasant: It didnBt frighten me that much. I just didnBt think it would happen. It was a record for a goalkeeper at that time and when Bobby Gould said to me that I should go then I started to think about it. I just felt that in a similar way to the situation with Dave Bassett and the Cup Final, that was the end of the line with me. I didnBt think we could go any better. I always wanted to see what the grass was like on the other side of the fence as such, and to go to Newcastle B they were a massive club waiting to get even bigger. Unfortunately, I went there just as Gazza was leaving. We more or less passed in the corridors and then there was a boardroom battle at the club in which Sir John Hall, who in the end did wonders for Newcastle, was trying to get on. The Seymours owned the club then and all the money that was to be or had been spent on players was done on the share issue. So all the players that had been bought by Newcastle were their assets and they had to give some of the money back. Unfortunately the move that looked such a good one for me B and IBd signed a five-year contract up there so I was willing to go up there and have a go at it B ended. Myself and five or six players were the first players to leave the football club.

Jimmy Hill: Through no fault of your own.

Dave Beasant: Exactly, but the thing was through a round-a-bout way I came back to London at Chelsea. I was back home, but IBm not saying I didnBt enjoy my short spell at Newcastle. IBd bought a house up there and IBd settled up there B and the people up there, I go up there now, and they are superb. But I just donBt think I would have been able to go from Wimbledon to Chelsea in one straight move. Going via Newcastle it was more acceptable to the Wimbledon fans.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000