"Beck would go to great lengths in search of the smallest advantage. Visiting sides were made to feel as unwelcome as possible, with the heating turned off in the cramped away dressing room and flat, soggy practice balls given out. It was psychological warfare. The impact of these unsporting practices and intimidation tactics is impossible to quantify, and many felt they were done simply for effect – pseudoscience to create a hostile atmosphere. Meanwhile, Cambridge players were forced to take ice-cold showers before kick-off to ensure their alertness. A mythology developed around these rituals that remains to this day. Some opponents didn’t take kindly to it."
In episode One Hundred we revisit ‘Route One’ by Sean Cole, first published in Issue Twenty Seven in December 2017. In it, he examines how John Beck’s long-ball theories brought unprecedented success to Cambridge United in the 1990s.
