As three-for-one salesmanship goes, Ted Bates’s dealings in the summer of 1959 take some beating: Charlie Livesey sold to Chelsea for Cliff Huxford plus £12,000; income promptly invested in George O’Brien and Dick Conner. Given the long-lasting service to Southampton’s cause of Huxford and O’Brien,

it is easy to forget what Conner brought to the side promoted from Division III in the first of his two seasons at The Dell.

Tyneside-born, Dick had not made the grade at Newcastle but, following a non-league stint with South Shields, he had been given a second chance in the Football League by Grimsby. He took it in some style – a style that so appealed to Bates that he had made two attempts to sign him in an exchange-deal, offering first Tommy Traynor and then John Hoskins. But now, in July 1959, Bates had cash. Grimsby had been promoted from the Third North in 1956, but Conner was willing to drop back to Division III with Southampton.

A wise move – he would miss only one game as the Saints won the division. Slotting in at right-half, he was much appreciated by inside-right O’Brien for the way he gave him the ball early and by outside-right Paine for “the way he passed it” – all in all, a role model for younger players, Terry reckoned. Despite being sidelined a few times by injuries in 1960-61, Dick finished the season in possession, but then dropped into Division IV, for a few games each with Tranmere and Aldershot, in turn. After assisting at Aldershot, he held further managerial posts, in the 1970s, in the lower divisions. In 1980, he took over a pub, near Rochdale, before returning to Tyneside.