Albert ‘Pat’ Beasley won two League titles and the FA Cup during a golden age for Arsenal Football Club.
He was just 17 when Herbert Chapman signed him in May 1931 and had to wait nearly a year for his first-team debut.
An injury to Alex James saw Cliff Bastin shunted inside to cover the Scot’s absence while Beasley started on the left. But it didn’t go well. Arsenal lost at Sunderland and took just one point from Beasley’s first three appearances.
He did not feature at all the following season but was back in the side in 1933/34 when Joe Hulme was unavailable.
And this time Beasley took his chance.
He scored twice on his return to the side as Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 and added another brace at Sheffield United the following week.
That was the launchpad for a successful spell on the flank and Beasley netted 12 goals in 27 games as Arsenal were crowned champions.
He shared wing duties with Hulme again in 1934/35 and finished the season strongly with four goals in five games as the Gunners retained their title.
And although Beasley found goals harder to come by after that, he did score three times during Arsenal’s run to the 1936 FA Cup Final.
He might have expected to start at Wembley after doing so much to get Arsenal there but the returning Ted Drake kept him out of the side and scored the only goal against Sheffield United.
Beasley was a regular at the start of the following season but, five days after facing Manchester United in October, he moved to Huddersfield.
Further success followed and Beasley earned his one and only England cap in 1939 before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Albert Beasley
