Not having made it with his home-town Blackburn, Brett Ormerod had to restart as a part-timer with Accrington Stanley in the Unibond League, while working in a textile factory. Blackpool soon offered him League football, initially in the third tier. When he missed much of the 1999-2000 season, with a broken leg, Blackpool were relegated. But they bounced straight back up, helped by Brett’s six goals in the play-offs. The goals kept coming in 2001-02 and, by the end of November, he had 20 competitive goals to his name. He was all set to move for £1.5m to Wigan – lying below Blackpool in the table, yet in a position to flash the cash – when Gordon Strachan raised the stakes to £1.75m (rising to £2m) and brought him to Premiership Southampton.

He played in most of the season’s remaining games, more often than not as a substitute. But, carrying an injury, he struggled to get among the goals. Having scored six times in October 2003, Brett’s next goal came in the FA Cup semi-final win v Watford, when he also crossed for the Saints’ second. His prime role in that 2002-03 season was as a tireless forager, chasing many a lost cause and helping to set up the goals for James Beattie, with whom he’d played in Blackburn’s Youth team.

Having never seen himself as “an out-and-out striker,” Brett was happy in this capacity. Having duly collected a loser’s medal in the 2003 Final, he became the third-choice striker for the next two seasons, consequent upon the arrival first of Kevin Phillips and then of Peter Crouch.

Relegation, followed by the departure of Crouch and Phillips, meant that there was a more regular role for him in 2005-06. Even so, he felt let down by Harry Redknapp and was keen to return to Lancashire. Yet he outlasted Redknapp and it was Harry’s successor, George Burley, who allowed Brett to join Preston on a free transfer. A regular in their run-in to the Championship play-offs, Brett shattered an ankle in the semi-finals. He recovered and, four seasons later, now back at Blackpool, he was in those play-offs again, scoring the winner at Wembley to take the Seasiders into the Premiership. Despite his previous experience, winning this play-off was “unbelievable”, he told the media. “It feels like we have landed on the moon without a rocket or a space helmet.” Brett’s only goal of Blackpool’s Premiership season – v Tottenham in February 2011 – meant that he had now scored for them in all four divisions. He topped that feat in 2012, with his first Conference goal for Wrexham. Bearing in mind his Unibond League experience with Accrington, he had now scored in each of the football pyramid’s top six divisions. In 2015 it was reported that he had bought a Subway franchise in Blackburn, but he took to Twitter to reveal it was his wife’s venture and he was not involved, although he did open a 24-hour gym in Southport in July 2017.