Malcolm Beard - 1960 to 1971

Last updated : 06 February 2010 By Brian Cartlidge

Talking about Malcolm Beard, former Blues skipper Terry Hennessey said: "If you had eleven men in your team like Malcolm, you couldn't go wrong."

Beard certainly gave his all every time he pulled on a football shirt and was held in high esteem by his fellow professionals.

Born in Cannock on 3rd May 1942, he was spotted playing schools representative football and signed amateur forms for Blues when he was 15.

In 1959, on his 17th birthday, Beard turned professional, after gaining England youth honours and made his first-team debut for Blues in the 1960/61 season.

He helped The Blues win the League Cup in 1963, appeared in two semi-finals ( League Cup 1967, FA Cup 1968) and collected a runners-up medal in the 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

In November 1969, Beard was given a testimonial at St. Andrews and little more than a year later he played his last game for Blues, against Millwall on 5th December 1970, and was sent off!

After 14 years at St. Andrew's, Beard joined Aston Villa in July 1971 but was basically a reserve team player there before moving on to non-league Atherstone in 1973.

A year later he was coach to The World Sporting Academy in Saudi Arabia, returning to Blues as a scout in 1979.

He went to Villa as chief scout in 1982 and then to Middlesbrough as coach in 1987.