Although only an amateur when he stepped up from Midlands League Kettering to Southern League Saints, Tom Binder very soon made his debut and duly signed pro. He couldn’t hold on to the right-wing spot the following season, however, when he featured more often in the Southern Alliance side. Southampton recommended him to Luton, who had just rejoined them in the Southern League’s top flight, but Tom opted, as war loomed, to return to Kettering.

Post-war, he became a publican in some style, running the George, a 17th-century coaching inn in Weldon, until his retirement, although in 1939 the mini census listed his occupation as that of a farmer in Bulwick.