Southampton’s boss, George Roughton, who had originally signed Derek Digby when he was a manager at Exeter, moved quickly when he heard Derek had refused terms at St James’s.

“Quick on his toes” and “lively and persistent”,

said the Echo of his Saints debut, in which he set up the winner for Henry Horton. But despite his speed – over a lap at The Dell, in 1954, his time of 53 seconds was the fastest – and an ability to use it on either wing, ­he could not dislodge either Johnny Hoskins or John Flood and was duly released into non-league football. He gained a BSc in Economics at London University and then a Ph.D. in Education at the University of East Anglia, to spend 20 years as a Maths teacher in Cambridgeshire and Essex, retiring in July 1981.