STOKE City found themselves men short again last night when heavy traffic threatened to ruin the supporters’ club’s meet-the-players’ evening at the Britannia Stadium. Luckily, new signing James Beattie came to the rescue, as Mike Baggaley reports.

JAMES Beattie has performed as a lone striker before, but this was ridiculous.

Stoke’s £3.5m signing from Sheffield United was supposed to be sharing the bill with Abdoulaye Faye, Henri Camara and Matthew Etherington at last night’s meet the player(s) event, but the other three were all stuck in traffic following a snarl up on the M6.

Beattie at least had broadcasting maestro Nigel Johnson for company, but with more than 200 expectant fans packed into Delilah’s bar – and more than an hour to kill – the top-table duo appeared to be on a sticky wicket.

We needn’t have worried. Beattie proved as natural with a microphone in his hand as his 117 league goals in 348 appearances suggest he is in front of goal.

Resting an elbow on the chair where Henri, Abdoulaye or Matthew might have sat, he proceeded to work the audience like Sinatra at the Las Vegas Sands.

A wisecrack here, an anecdote there, he kept the standing-room-only crowd royally entertained for 45 minutes until emergency substitute Danny Higginbotham dashed through the doors.

To Beattie’s credit, there was also plenty of honesty amid the humour. Asked if the team was suffering through a lack of discipline, following the dismissals of Rory Delap and Matthew Etherington in successive games, he made no attempt to duck the issue. He said: “If you were to look at the last two games, then as fan or someone in the media, you would maybe say so.

“With the two sendings off, if you had the lads in here they would probably say they were petulant or silly. At the end of the day you are stitching your team-mates up and it is us who have to go out there and perform without the full team.

“The lads are really sorry when you come back into the dressing room, but they are old enough and mature enough not to do things like that.

“Obviously red mist comes down now and again. I thought Rory’s was a booking and I haven’t seen Matty’s, but you have to keep your composure. We are going to need it until the end of the season.”

Even Etherington’s empty seat was beginning to shift uncomfortably at this point, but Beattie went on to say how highly he rates the winger.

He said: “He’s a very good player, exactly what we need. In the Man City game he relieved a lot of pressure from us by carrying the ball down the field.

“Then, when he’s put through on the left wing, he can deliver quality. That makes my job a little bit easier. If he delivers crosses like that then I will get on the end of them.”

Fans who recognised a touch of Alan Shearer in Beattie’s headed winner against Manchester City on his home debut shouldn’t be too surprised. The striker grew up supporting his hometown club Blackburn and signed for them the season after Shearer and Chris Sutton helped Rovers win the Premier League in 1994-95.

However, football wasn’t Beattie’s first choice of sport or career.

He said: “I used to do a lot of swimming. I did a lot of training and competitions and got to be the second in the country at one point when I was 13.

“I trained between 40 and 50 miles a week, but got a shoulder injury probably through doing too much too soon. Me, my mum and dad went to see the specialist and he said I could stop swimming then or face having arthritis by the time I was 25.

“So, I had to give up swimming and concentrate on my school work. I used to enjoy school and I wanted to try to see if I could make a medical career.

“I had all my qualifications up to the point where Blackburn Rovers saw me playing for the school. They asked me if I wanted to come and do what used to be a YTS for two years. My dad, who was a truck driver and had re-mortgaged the house to send me to private school, said that wasn’t enough security.

“Blackburn came back and said they would give me a two-year YTS deal and a one-year professional deal.

“My dad asked me what I wanted to do and I said I would like to give it a go because I could always go back to my schooling and do that if football didn’t work out. But I would probably never get the opportunity again to become a professional footballer.

“I wasn’t the best footballer, but developed quite quickly and, 12 months into my YTS, signed a three-year contract. I scored a lot of goals for the A’ and ‘B’ teams and reserves and made my debut at 18 for Blackburn against Arsenal and Messrs Bould and Adams.

“I was a skinny 18-year-old playing against the two best centre-halves in the Premiership. Arsenal beat us 2-0 at Ewood Park and Ian Wright scored two. But he came up to me afterwards and said if I kept playing like that I would be all right.”

Stoke’s fans have taken to Beattie as quickly as Wright did. Happily, the feeling is mutual.

Asked what he made of the Britannia’s atmosphere, he told supporters: “It’s fantastic. I’ve been on the receiving end on a couple of trips to the Britannia where I have played for other teams. It’s quite intimidating because, down on the pitch, when the noise level is like it was against Manchester City, it really helps Stoke.

“I was in need of oxygen for the last 15 minutes, but the fans inspired me to keep running and really helped.

“It was my family’s first game at the Britannia and my dad couldn’t believe how noisy they were. I’m good mates with Wayne Bridge and he was saying how loud the fans were and that they were putting their players off. If you can keep it up, that would be great.”

Stoke’s new star then handed over to established fans’ favourite Higginbotham before the meeting ended with thunderous applause and a scrum of autograph hunters.

Mums and children had their pictures taken with the players while dads wondered about asking for a snap with Beattie’s metallic-blue Lamborghini which had settled like a spacecraft outside.

Newsflash. Faye did battle through the traffic, but the bar had emptied and the evening was over by the time he screeched to a halt on the car park. On the positive side, Delilah’s caretaker can now swear with the best of them should he ever visit Senegal.

-- photo
THE SHOW MUST GO ON: Stoke striker James Beattie entertains supporters at a meet the players event at the Britannia.

-- photo
ENTERTAINED: Stoke fans enjoy the show as striker