Nearing the end of his scouting days with Southampton, Tom Parker took a shine to a youngster playing in the tough environment of Alresford’s men’s team. The management backed his judgment and, while still only 16, Trevor Hebberd was leading the Reserves’ forward-line.

His shy laugh earned him the nickname “Smiler” from John McGrath, but it seems that his natural reticence, allied to a nonchalant, unhurried style, may have restricted his progress.

Even his versatility meant that he was often a useful deputy until someone regained form or fitness.The breakthrough came in 1978-79 when he featured in more than half the League games and in the six League Cup matches that took the Saints from the Third Round to the Final. He scored a couple of goals in the run and laid on Terry Curran’s semi-final winner. Yet he was not even the sub for the Final – which still rankles with Trevor to this day.

He missed only six League games, the following season, but made only a handful of appearances in the two “Kevin Keegan” campaigns, either side of a spring-break in Washington DC, where he was billed as “The Greyhound”. In March 1982, he joined Oxford United, along with George Lawrence, in the deal that brought Keith Cassells and Mark Wright to The Dell. Once Oxford had redeployed him as a forceful midfielder, who could contribute a few goals – penalties included – Trevor’s career flourished under manager, Jim Smith.

Ever-present as Oxford won the Third Division in 1984, he did enough for them, as they immediately won Division II, for Smith, who thereupon moved sideways to QPR, to ask Trevor to go with him. Having elected to stay,

Trevor somewhat ironically picked up the Man-of-the-Match trophy when Oxford beat QPR 3-0 in the 1986 League Cup Final –

a reward for his goal and two assists. When Oxford went down in 1988, Trevor managed to stay in Division I with Derby for a couple of seasons. A cartilage injury hampered further progress, but he still had four more seasons of League football in him: a flirtation with second-tier Portsmouth, followed by 99 games in the fourth-tier, most of them for Chesterfield under Chris McMenemy. Then, after a non-league fling, he retired to work for a steel stockholder. Living in the east Midlands, he nursed his knee, even then in his fifties, through the occasional charity match. Trevor made more than 500 appearances in the Football League.

Most of them were outside the top tier, yet many a Saints fan of a certain age will wonder whether he might have featured more often in a red-and-white shirt.