Former Pompey defender admits racially abusing black players when a teenager

The defender was part of the Blues squad that reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1992, with the Sheffield-born left-back missing his spot-kick in the penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool after the game went to a replay.

Last year Beresford, who played more than 130 games for Pompey between 1989 and 1992, was awarded an MBE for 20 years service to Show Racism the Red Card - the anti-racism education charity.

No aged 51, he's confessed to being part of the bigotry that plagued the English game during the 1970s and '80s - something we now regrets.

Speaking to ITV, he said: 'In the late seventies black players were few and far between, but I would be doing the monkey chants, and I would be shouting abuse, and things like that.

'I was part of a mob culture and it wasn't a time great for supporters, it was quite volatile.

'When I was younger, I was never told what was right, and what was wrong.

'Meeting people and understanding how wrong it was helped change my views.'

Beresford signed for Newcastle United in the summer of 1992.

He later joined Southampton in February 1998, before retiring in the 1999-2000 season.