The youngest of 14 children, Dave Affleck was rescued from a life underground, digging coal, by the offer of a professional contract with Notts County, although it wasn’t until he moved to Bristol City he made his League bow. Later at Clapton Orient he became regarded as the 3rd Division’s best centre-half which is why, Tom Parker, recently appointed as Saints manager, “paid big money” to make him the club’s biggest signing since John McIlwane had arrived seven years earlier, in 1930.

Incisive tackling and adept in the air, had war not intervened he could well have joined Spurs or Chelsea, both of whom were known admirers.

He joined the Police War Reserve but soon transferred to the regular Borough force which then enabled him to feature for the strong war-time police team. At 33 he was too old to consider going back into professional football once the war ended and, after engineering a move to Yeovil in the Southern League, he found employment with the Southern Electricity Board in the town.