Colin Clarke had already clocked up the best part of 200 League games in the lower divisions when Chris Nicholl signed him for £400,000 from Harry Redknapp’s Bournemouth. Bizarrely he put pen to paper at midnight at Gatwick airport as Saints secretary, Brian Truscott made a late-night dash with the paperwork to catch him before he departed on holiday. Having just scored for Northern Ireland against Spain in the World Cup Finals in Mexico, Colin made a sensational start to his Saints career. He scored a hat-trick at The Dell (the first Saint to bag three on his debut) in the 5-1 win over Queens Park Rangers in the opening game of the 1986-87 season.

With a League goal nearly every two games for Saints, Colin should be more fondly remembered. And then there were his assists – one of his finest days for the club came in his second season when Alan Shearer scored his own full-debut hat-trick. Colin set up two of the goals and frequently dragged the Arsenal defense out of shape for Shearer to take full advantage of the space created.

But his legacy was seemingly damaged by a disagreement with Nicholl over terms, which triggered a series of transfer requests and talk of a move to a “bigger club”.

An acrimonious six months saw him consigned to the Reserves, back on loan with Redknapp and finally off to QPR. Trevor Francis was struggling as manager of a Rangers’ side in need of points when Colin joined them for £800,000 just before the 1989 transfer deadline. The move didn’t work out and Frank Burrows invested a Portsmouth record of £450,000 to take him to Fratton Park just over a year later. His playing days were ended by a knee ligament injury sustained in a collision with a post in a Pompey Reserves game.

After running a pub-restaurant near Lambourn, Colin embarked on a coaching career in the USA. Starting at Richmond Kickers in Virginia, he moved to San Diego Flash, then Dallas Burn (rebranded FC Dallas). In 2007, he was hired to coach Puerto Rico Islanders and, a year later, combined those duties with managing the national team.  In December 2011, he was appointed head coach of Carolina Railhawks, based in Cary, North Carolina, a position he held until October 2018. Colin scored a record 13 goals in 38 appearances for Northern Ireland (later overhauled by David Healy) under Billy Bingham, “the best manager I played for”.

His 1991 hat-trick against the Faroe Islands – “it still counts”, he insists – was the first since George Best achieved the feat 20 years earlier. There is no doubting the job he covets: should the call come, he would love to manage his home country.