At West Ham, Jimmy Harris had played but seven games in Division I and moving to Second Division Southampton in the summer of 1932, he was in time to pose with his new team-mates and manager at the Southampton Lido during pre-season training. He went straight into the first team for the curtain raiser at Millwall, filling a vacancy at outside-left, as the team crashed 0-3. Two days later, at The Dell, the home fans had their first glimpse – and it transpired their last – as following the 2-2 draw, Johnny Arnold having finished his cricket season announced himself available.

When Arnold was sold in the February, there were no sudden openings as Bill Luckett was switched from left-half to the left-wing and James remained a regular in the Reserves where he scored six goals in 42 appearances. He was released come May and returned to his native Kent, where he worked at Aylesford Paper Mills and turned out for the works-team.