Peter Beadle

Peter Clifford William James Beadle (born May 13, 1972 in Lambeth) is an English ex-professional footballer, now a manager.

Playing career

A striker, he made his debut with Gillingham while still a teenager and showed much promise, earning a move to Premiership side Tottenham in 1992. However, he never made a first team appearance for Spurs, and after loan spells at Bournemouth and Southend, he left to join Watford in September 1994. This move was not a success, however, and a year later he signed for Bristol Rovers. At Rovers his career started to take off, with 43 goals in two and a half years. Brief spells at Port Vale and Notts County followed, and in September 1999 he returned to Bristol, this time with Rovers' rivals, City. He stayed there for four years, winning the LDV Vans Trophy in 2003, but during that time they were unable to achieve promotion from the Second Division. Following his release in 2003 he had brief spells with Brentford (10 minutes into his debut, he was sent off and never played for Brentford again) and Barnet, before joining non-league side Team Bath. In June 2004 he moved from Bath to become player-commercial manager at Clevedon Town.

Managerial career

In October 2005, Beadle replaced John Cornforth as manager of Conference South club side Newport County. Beadle successfully stablised the team in his first season, avoiding the threat of relegation.

In the 2006-07 season Newport progressed through the FA Cup qualifying rounds to face Swansea City in the FA Cup First Round. After 15 minutes Beadle was sent off by referee Anthony Bates after Beadle disputed a free-kick awarded to Swansea. Shortly afterwards the assistant referee was hit on the head by a coin thrown from the crowd in the stands and had to be taken to hospital where he underwent surgery for damage to an artery. Newport lost 3–1.

Subsequently, both Newport County and Beadle received heavy punishments from the Welsh FA. Newport were fined £3,000 after being found guilty of failing to control their supporters and Beadle received a seven-match touchline ban after accepting misconduct charges. Beadle was also fined £1,500, half of which was suspended subject to good behaviour.

Under Beadle Newport twice narrowly missed out out on the Conference South promotion play-offs in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons after last day defeats. In the same seasons Newport twice appeared in the FAW Premier Cup final, winning the 2008 final. However, on 27 April 2008 Beadle was sacked by Newport County after failing to reach the playoffs the previous day.

References

*cite book | author=Roger Triggs | title=The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club| publisher=Tempus Publishing Ltd | year=2001| id=ISBN 0-7524-2243-X