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Dave Beasant features in Saturday’s edition of Forest Review, discussing his time at the City Ground and Stamford Bridge.
The former goalkeeper made over 300 career appearances for both clubs during four-year spells on Trentside and in west London.
Below is an extract from the feature, in which Beasant recalls his time with Forest and his unique training sessions in the build-up to matches at the City Ground.
“I loved it there. I think people around Nottingham knew how much I loved it up there. When I first signed for Forest, Dave Bassett was the manager who signed me.
“I was only on loan first of all for three months. It was a month loan that became three months on loan. Then I signed permanently, but I actually trained at Chelsea while I was a Forest player — Monday and Tuesday — and then I would go up to Nottingham for training on Thursday and Friday for the game on Saturday.”
Despite being a Forest player, Beasant revealed he had a unique way of preparing for matches during his time on Trentside.
“So, I was still going in at Chelsea, and then when we won promotion at the end of the first season, the same thing happened the following season — so I’m training down at Chelsea and they’re in the same league as us!
“I’d train with the reserves, and my coach was Mike Kelly — he was from down here as well — so he would come in and work with me so I’d get the work I needed.
“Chelsea’s first team would have gone in, and as I was going in half an hour after their training finished, Gianfranco Zola would come out with a bag of balls with a coach, and he was practising free kicks.
“He’d have the wall of dummies out and he was brilliant. He could use the wall as a guide and put it over the top because the goalkeeper’s position isn’t the right position — you’re relying on the wall protecting part of your goal.
“He’d put it over the wall into the top corner, so I’d think, ‘Right, next one, I’m going to start to go a little bit early,’ and then he’d put it back where you’d just come from.
“I’m thinking when we play them, ‘You’ve got a problem here. What do I do?’ And then the coach said, ‘Right, now take the ball out of the way, put the ball into that same position, and you take your perfect position.’ He couldn’t score!
“Because he’s a finesse player — he doesn’t smash it. I’m thinking, ‘Right, when we play Chelsea, if they get a free kick, I’m not going to have a wall.’”...
To read the interview in full, pick up your copy of Forest Review around the City Ground ahead of Saturday lunchtime’s kick-off.