5th February 1983

[erimus74]

Kevin Beattie starts his final Boro game when high flying Newcastle came to Ayresome Park

This was his 4th & final game that he started, he made one more appearence when coming on as a late sub, which was to be the only Boro game he was on the losing side of

When big Mal signed KB you thought he was coming for an easy ride, pick up his wages, stroll around the pitch, etc, but the total opposite, even with one good leg you could see he was class, his organising skill, leadership was second to none, growing up I would say to my dad why are Kevin Beattie & Colin Todd keeping Willie Maddren out of the England team, well with watching him a lot older, once retired due to so many injuries & basically one leg you can imagine how good he was in the days when Ipswich were a force to be reckoned with & KB was at the heart of all their success

I always look back on my time following the Boro back then & in watching KB, he was a true professional

Newcastle came to the Boro as one of the front runners of the 2nd divison, with Keegan, Waddle, Varadi in their team they were a force to be reckoned with, KB kept them at bay

Mick Baxter put the mighty Boro 1-0 up, in the 1st half when Newcastle did find a way past our well marshalled defence Kelham O'Hanlon, playing only his 3rd Boro game in goal, was having a cracking game

All that changed at half time when Kevin Beattie had to leave the field due to his persistent injury with Dave Currie coming on & the defence been reshuffled, Newcastle came more & more in to the game, Keegan equalised & though it seemed one way traffic we held on to earn a memorable draw & since the turn of the year suffered only one defeat, though out of the 5 games we played we had yet to win

We really need a fit KB in the team to keep ourselves above the relegation trap door

He record at the Boro played 5, scored one
Barnsley at home 2-0
Beat Charlton away 3-2
Drew Newcastle at home 1-1
Beat 1st divison Notts County in the 4th round of the FAC 2-0, KB scored a penalty becoming our 50th different penalty taker & the final FAC penalty scored at AP
Lost at home to Derby 3-2, he came on as sub, we were 2-0 down & fought back to 2-2

Big Mals team

kelham O'Hanlon
Irving Nattrass
Joe Bolton
kevin Beattie
Mick Baxter
Darren Wood
Heine Otto
Paul Sugrue
Ray Hankin
Dave Shearer
Stephen Bell
Sub
Dave Currie

[Francks left peg]

Was only one sub allowed back then?