Any player with the nickname The Beast has to be in the cult hero bracket. A goalkeeper with a huge physique, tall, broad and beefy, he arrived at Burnley in 2003 from West Brom. For over ten years the Danish custodian fought off challenges from several other keepers that were brought in. Fans were always divided as to his ability and may even challenge the cult status, but for me he was a rock, occasionally a tad dodgy which kind of added to his charm, even heroes have off days, but capable of delivering inspiring performances that on occasions single-handedly won the points. When he was manager at Bradford City Bryan Robson said he was world-class in the game there. Nobody, in fact, was better at winning one-on-ones as Arsenal will testify in the Carling Cup game at Turf Moor that Burnley won. There were six in all. He was a supreme penalty saver as Chelsea will testify when Burnley won the shoot-out at Stamford Bridge again in the Carling. This was in his peak season when he starred in the promotion team. Aged 38, he is still playing at Crawley Town having joined the list of players at Burnley who played over 300 games. His book simply called BEAST, is well worth the read.
