Norman Dean came to Southampton at the recommendation of scout, Carvel White (who along with his twin brother, Arnold had been on the books in the 1930s). Coming to Southampton, Norman initially completed his welding apprenticeship with CPC (see scrapbook section) and then alongside Martin Chivers started scoring freely for the Reserves. Lodging with the Chivers family in Regents Park the two became great friends, Norman acting as Martin’s best man when he got married.

Chivers forced his way into the first team long before Dean although there was one outing at Tranmere Rovers in the League Cup in 1963. His last-minute call-up, following an injury to George O’Brien, came too late to stop his father, Harold traveling from his home in Corby, via Manchester, to watch him play at Craven Cottage for the Reserves. His father told the Echo “But when I think I could easily have got to Tranmere, it’s heartbreaking”.

In the 1963-64 and 1964-65 seasons, Norman scored 40 goals for the Reserves, so it was no surprise that when he was finally introduced into the first team during the promotion season of 1965-66, in partnership with his old friend (see below), he weighed in with some priceless goals (11 in 18 apps) including a hat-trick at Fratton Park.

But then Ron Davies was signed in the summer of 1966 and he went back to scoring goals for the Reserves – until he joined Second Division Cardiff in March. He wrote his name into the record books during Cardiff’s 1967-68 European Cup-Winners campaign: having got the winner against Torpedo Moskva in the quarter-final, he then scored in each leg of the losing semi-final v Hamburger SV (see scrapbook section).

A broken leg sustained with Barnsley ended Norman’s League career and he returned to Corby to live, working for British Steel and then the Oxford University Press. In October 2003, he came back to Southampton and became a security officer at Staplewood, the club’s training ground, going part-time in 2009.