Liam Beckett was born in Ballymoney, County Antrim. He is a sports pundit on BBC Radio Ulster and writes a weekly football column for The Newsletter. He played football for Crusaders and Coleraine in the Irish League as well as for Drogheda in the League of Ireland before moving into management, first with his hometown team Ballymoney United, and also Cliftonville and Institute.After his playing career came to an end Beckett offered a young Robert Dunlop the use of a workshop at his house in Ballymoney. For the next 20 years, he worked as his mechanic/manager until Dunlop’s untimely death at the North West 200 in 2008.