The nickname “The Tamworth Sprinter” immediately reveals one asset enjoyed by centre-forward Albert Brown. Indeed he was hailed as the

“fastest forward in the kingdom”.

Add in his powerful shooting and take into account the service from the two Turners on the Saints’ flanks and it can be seen why Brown could not stop scoring in his first season at Southampton. His 25 goals in 26 Southern League appearances included a record-breaking seven when the Saints beat Northampton 11-0 at The Dell in December 1901.

He had scored three in the first five minutes and his tally remains the highest ever in a competitive fixture in what remains the club’s biggest-ever win.

He was duly presented with the match ball but not before it was painted red and white and inscribed. Albert rounded off the season by scoring in the FA Cup Final replay, his fourth goal of the run. He sustained an injury during the summer, however, and struggled to regain his place at the start of the following season. After just one outing he was allowed to join QPR, an inferior Southern League outfit for a £96 fee. If that became a surprise, it would become apparent that Southampton had had the best of his goal-scoring prowess.

That said, Albert still had a couple of Football League seasons left in him, initially at First Division Preston and then at Division II Blackpool, where he suffered leg ulcers and his career petered out. But back in Tamworth, he soon got himself into an awful lot of trouble. Shortly after quitting the game in 1908 he was charged with blackmail and “demanding money by menaces”. Albert – single at the time – had had a child with a woman named Laura Hawkins and was paying maintenance, a fact he was none too happy about. He discovered that on the previous Christmas Eve, a local farmer called Arthur Jackson had become drunk and had some sort of sexual encounter with Hawkins.

Which is why, one night in early January, Albert accompanied by an associate – a cross country jockey called Williams – went to confront Jackson at his farmhouse. Awakened by the loud banging at his door, Jackson left his wife in bed and admitted the two men. A row broke out, as Brown demanded £300 hush money and a silver tea-and-coffee set that was on the sideboard, estimated to be worth £100.

When Jackson refused, Brown threatened to charge upstairs and tell his wife about her drunken husband’s dalliance. Brown and Williams were eventually persuaded to leave, but only when Jackson had agreed to meet them later in the week in a pub when he said he would pay them some money. After giving Brown £40, Jackson decided to report the matter to the police, which is how Southampton FC’s individual goal-scoring record holder ended up going to prison for a five-year stretch (Williams got three years). In handing down the sentence, the magistrate told the court that Brown was of “bad character” and had already been involved in a similar incident of attempted bribery in Tamworth. He served over three years of his sentence and came out to find a job in the Dunlop factory in Birmingham and later became a house painter. He got married and raised a family, who were unaware, until 2016 – 61 years after Albert’s death – of their ancestor’s murky past.