Born in Germany to a father serving in the RAF, Alan Neilson was qualified to play for Wales and had already won the first four of his five eventual caps when he was signed by Alan Ball, in one of his last acts as Southampton manager.

A tidy, no-nonsense tackler and distributor,

he was deployed both as a full-back and as a midfielder by Dave Merrington and Graeme Souness, in turn. In his last start for Souness, he slotted in Egil Ostenstad Roker Park, for the goal that saved the Saints and relegated Sunderland. But Souness’s successor, Dave Jones, soon sold Alan to Fulham. He was with Fulham for five seasons, as they progressed from the third tier to the Premiership; but, plagued by injuries, he seldom managed a decent run. His subsequent career has included three spells as caretaker-manager at Luton and most recently he has been with Norwich coaching the youngsters since 2015