Frank Thorpe played his early football in or around Manchester, including a spell – in which he didn’t get a game – with Second Division Newton Heath, soon to become Manchester United. But his best years were spent with First Division Bury, playing regularly for five seasons, during which he bagged an FA Cup Winners’ medal in 1903. By the time he arrived, still only 27, at Southern League Southampton in 1907, he had had a season in that League with Plymouth Argyle.

An intelligent centre-half, Frank captained the Saints to the FA Cup semi-final in his first season.

He continued to be a Southern League fixture until December 1908. An injury then sidelined him until April, when he returned for much of an undefeated run-in.

Not surprisingly, then, the club was reluctant to see him return, in the summer of 1909, to Bury, where he was needed not as a first-teamer, but as player-coach in charge of the Reserves. He was at Gigg Lane to see Southampton win an FA Cup replay in 1923.