Nottinghamshire-born Alf Ward played his early football just across the Derbyshire border. But then, while still a teenager, he broke into the Football League with First Division Notts County in 1903, only to leave after getting but half-a-dozen games in his one season with them.

He would spend three of the next five seasons totalling nine appearances for three Southern League clubs – Brighton, Bradford Park Avenue (defying geographical logic) and Southampton – sandwiching two seasons in the Scottish First Division with Aberdeen.

It looked for a while as if Alf wouldn’t get a competitive game for the Saints at all. Having arrived in time to join the club’s European tour in May 1908, he displaced the cartilage of his right knee in the final match in Leipzig. Returning to Southampton, he underwent three operations. He recovered sufficiently to make eight first-team appearances, including four in the Southern League in three different forward positions. The knee continued to trouble him, however, and Alf retired at the season’s end. He duly found work as a general carter in Bolsover, not far from where his football career began.