383: Russell Beardsmore and Scott Mean, AFC Bournemouth, Panini Football League 95 Official Sticker Collection

This week we take on a request post on behalf of two of our Twitter followers albeit with several months passing between the actual requests. When The Football Pinks put forward the first player on this sticker as one of the “names I loved the sound of a kid” it reminded me that I’d made a note of a sticker featuring his teammate thanks to Dave Mathieson’s suggestion many moons ago due to his post-career acting exploits. Thanks for the ideas, (and for your patience Dave) we hope this does this does the trick!

When AFC Bournemouth defeated Charlton Athletic 3-0 on the last day of the 2014/15 season to secure the Championship title it ended a 126 year wait to experience top flight football. Perhaps most impressively it marked the end of a remarkable turnaround for a club that had started the 2008/09 campaign with a ten point deduction in League Two due to their perilous financial situation. While the Cherries suffered relegation in 2020 they bounced back at the end of the 2021/22 season and, after a rocky start, more than held their own last time out. Back in the 1990s there was slightly more consistency on the South Coast as Bournemouth maintained a solid mid-table position in the third tier throughout the decade. There was one trip to Wembley for the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy Final in 1998 but Grimsby Town proved too much for the Cherries. At the heart of their midfield, and captaining the side, that day was Russell Beardsmore.

Beardsmore had arrived at Dean Court in 1993 following seven years at Manchester United. Following the sale of Gordon Strachan he established himself in the Red Devils’ midfield and managed to hold down his first team place despite the arrivals of Neil Webb and Paul Ince picking up a Charity Shield winner’s medal in 1990 despite not taking to the field. Beardsmore’s versatility meant that he was equally adept on the wing or in the centre of the park but the arrival of Andrei Kanchelskis limited his first team opportunities and his last appearance for United was as an unused substitute in their Cup Winners’ Cup Final victory in 1991. His free transfer to Bournemouth came after a frustrating season without a first team game as Manchester United became the inaugural Premier League champions. At the same time his future teammate Scott Mean was racking up nineteen appearances at Dean Court at the tender age of 19.

Mean was a product of the Bournemouth youth system but, due to a combination of injury and the arrival of Beardsmore, his 1993/94 campaign was considerably quieter. Both Beardsmore and Mean, however, were regulars in the following season under new manager Mel Machin as the Cherries somehow avoided relegation despite entering 1995 with only two league wins under their belts. Mean’s four goals in the final six games were pivotal to Bournemouth’s survival and, although the 1995/96 season was somewhat quieter, former Cherries’ favourite Harry Redknapp had seen enough to table a £100,000 bid to bring Mean to West Ham United and the Premier League. Despite overtures about his potential he made just three first team appearances across three years in East London and was sent on loan to Port Vale in the 1998/99 season. A knee injury on his Valiants debut more or less ended his hopes of performing at the highest level and in August 1999 he was once again lining up for Bournemouth.

Russell Beardsmore had called time on his playing career at the end of the 1997/98 season and, despite his reputation as one of Manchester United’s biggest dressing room pranksters, settled into a career behind the scenes at Bolton Wanderers as their Assistant Community Officer before returning to Bournemouth as an Inclusion Officer. He currently serves as a BTEC Coach at Manchester United although this was not his first experience working with younger players at his former club. Having caught Alex Ferguson square in the throat during a training ground snowball fight during his time as a player he spent the next three weeks putting in extra training shifts with the under-14s.

Scott Mean played just one more season at Dean Court before retiring from professional football aged only 27. His next appearance was in an England shirt as Parksey in the film Mike Bassett: England Manager in 2001 where his acting abilities impressed producers of Sky’s Dream Team enough to cast him as Robbie Walsh. Although not part of some of Harchester United’s more outlandish storylines he still managed to survive a bus crash, play in a UEFA Cup Final, have an affair with a teammate’s wife and end up being sold to Brighton and Hove Albion all in the space of one year. Bitten by the acting bug, but thankfully not bumped off like so many of his Harchester colleagues, Mean turned up on The Bill and Eastenders trading on his “dashing good looks” rather than his “very ordinary skills” which saw BBC Sport’s Tom Fordyce interestingly compare him to Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova.

The 1990s may not have been the most thrilling for Bournemouth fans but, in time honoured tradition, the third tier stalwarts provided the perfect place for experienced heads to bring their careers to a close and youngsters to launch themselves on to bigger things. It’s fitting that Panini chose to have these two together representing the two extremes (as they’ve done many times before) Russell Beardsmore brought genuine top flight pedigree to Dean Court along with the likes of Mark Stein while Matt Holland, Efan Ekoku and Scott Mean enjoyed spells at the club on their way up the league pyramid.  Beardsmore may not have helped the Cherries to climb up to the Premier League and Mean may have enjoyed more success as a fictional footballer but the pair more than contributed during their years on the South Coast.