Beasant still hungry after all these years

Marking the sprightly Bobby Zamora on a spring day more akin to high summer is probably not what Dave Beasant expected to be doing just three days before his 44th birthday.

Mind you, the oldest professional footballer in the country was also canny enough to pass on the responsibility during a practice match before he and his Brighton and Hove Albion team-mates boarded the bus north for tonight's First Division game against Sheffield United.

In truth, Beasant did not show many of the touches that, until the age of 16, made him a striker like Zamora. It was at that comparatively late age that he volunteered to go between the sticks and decided to stay. But when yesterday's session moved on to his chosen specialism Beasant displayed the astonishing appetite and still impressive agility that have helped galvanise Brighton into a force which may, miraculously, escape the drop.

Glenn Hoddle was at the Withdean stadium on Saturday to watch Zamora in the home side's eyecatching 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest. A bid is expected in the summer. It will also not have escaped the Tottenham Hotspur manager that it was Beasant, who spent two months at White Hart Lane a year ago, defying the division's second-most potent strikeforce and another of his old clubs.

It was Beasant's third clean sheet in seven appearances since getting the call from Brighton's manager, Steve Coppell. Not that, having signed until the end of the season, he has come to the south coast with any thoughts of retirement. "As far as I am concerned, I am in the shop window to earn a contract for next season," says Beasant. Shop window? Shouldn't he be thinking of shutting up shop? Perish the thought. His birthday, on Thursday, is simply a "hindrance", he says.

"It is just another problem I have to incur, with people now saying that instead of being 43, I'm 44," he explains. "Every game I was available for last season I played in the First Division, and then suddenly at the end of the season people are looking at the birth certificate rather than what you are capable of still doing.

"Whenever you hear my name mentioned it is as if my first name now is 'veteran'. I've been a veteran for 15 years, I suppose. That's the tough part for me, the date on my birth certificate."

Still, there is comfort in that he is some way short of the record playing age, set in 1947, of Neil McBain (51 years, 120 days), a stand-in goalkeeper for New Brighton. Sir Stanley Matthews was, of course, 50 when he finished while, more recently, Peter Shilton played until he was 47.

Beasant's priority is to impress Coppell and to keep playing. It is why he exercised a get-out clause at Wigan Athletic. "I don't like sitting on the bench," he says.

His career has spanned four decades, as he made his debut at Wimbledon in 1979, and 14 clubs, although the last seven are counted in months rather than years. However, despite 877 appearances, he will always be remembered for two incidents.

Beasant became the first goalkeeper, when at Wimbledon, to save a penalty in an FA Cup Final. They won the competition as the culmination of nine incredible years as part of the Crazy Gang – an era, he says, which will never be repeated. So, just how crazy were they?

"The majority of the stories, plus a few more, were true," he says. 'That's the thing of course, because football has such a higher profile now a lot of the things that went on would not have been too well looked upon today. I think there would have been a lot of front-page headlines."

The second incident was much more taxing. Playing for Chelsea in 1992 against Norwich City he made two dreadful, Dudekesque errors. Chelsea's manager, Ian Porterfield, said nothing and it was only when Beasant turned on The Nine O'Clock News that he learnt he had been 'sacked'. But instead it was Beasant who survived and Porterfield who eventually went. "It was badly handled by the manager and so people tend to think I did not enjoy myself at Chelsea. I had a great time," says Beasant.

In fact, his biggest regret is Newcastle United, where he signed for a record £800,000 for a goalkeeper in 1988 after that final. The club were in the middle of a power struggle and Beasant, despite agreeing a five-year contract, was sold on after just six months to reduce debts. The size of the fee is not the only thing people forget about Beasant. The other is his two England caps.

But he will, like it or not, forever be 'Lurch' from the Crazy Gang. How has football changed since then? "At Wimbledon it was just an extension of being non-league, really. That's not being disrespectful, but it was that kind of culture and atmosphere. Now the pitches are better, the facilities are better, the game is quicker, the players are more athletic and they look after themselves." No carveries and eve-of-match drinking, then.

Despite his protestations, retirement is on the horizon. Beasant has already made plans, being a fully-qualified Uefa coach. "When the fateful day has to come I do want to stay involved," he says. "This has been my life for 24, 25 years and to suddenly give it up and not be involved – I don't know what I would do."

Both his sons have shown a talent for the game. Nick, 17, is at Wycombe Wanderers with Sam, 14, at the Buckinghamshire club's school of excellence. Wycombe, of course, are managed by Beasant's former team-mate – and goalscorer in that FA Cup Final – Lawrie Sanchez. "Sanch is a friend of mine. I keep in touch with him all the time," says Beasant.

So could the final stop for 'Lurch' be at Adams Park? "Sanch knows I want to play at the highest possible level, and that is no disrespect to Wycombe," insists Beasant, still displaying the belief that has kept him going all these years.