When Southampton reached the Football League Cup Final in 1979, two Hampshire lads who had each played a substantial part in the Cup-run – Manny Andruszewski and Trevor Hebberd – appeared to have a strong case to be in the 12-man squad at Wembley.

For reasons explained in their profiles, however, Manny entertained no expectation of being involved, while Trevor remains disappointed to this day that he was denied even the No.12 shirt. That shirt went to Tony Sealy, a product of Tyneside’s famous Wallsend Boys Club, brought to The Dell, as a prolific schoolboy scorer of goals by the celebrated north-east scout, Jack Hixon. So when Austin Hayes was pulled off at Wembley by Lawrie McMenemy, Tony came on to make his first-ever appearance in this competition. The manager’s tactical advice to him was to “show your mum what you can do.” Whatever his mum may have thought of his performance, it was Tony’s last game for the Saints before he was sold to Crystal Palace, where he made a handful of appearances in their run-in to the Division II title.

McMenemy revealed, in his Diary of that 1978-79 season, that he struck an unusual deal with Palace’s manager, Terry Venables.

Not yet 20, Tony had shown himself to be a nippy forward, lacking neither in confidence or bravado.

For his part, McMenemy considered him “an unknown quantity [who] could develop into a good player” – in which case, he “would want him back” from Palace. Venables put his signature to that, but didn’t want Tony in 1979-80. Nor did McMenemy. So Tony went on loan, come February, to Port Vale, John McGrath’s struggling Fourth Division outfit, where he was ever-present for that rest of that season. Back at Palace in 1980-81, Tony survived his manager’s November departure, but then followed him to QPR in March. He top-scored for them as they topped the table in 1982-83. But after a few games in the top flight, Tony was back in Division II, on loan to Fulham, for whom he then signed. He still had some First Division football left in him, with Leicester City, but his career would henceforth be played out in the lower divisions, with interludes in Portugal and Finland.

Then, at 33, he made a decisive move to Hong Kong, where he took a degree in Recreational and Sports Management and has held coaching, managerial and leading administrative positions, since 1995 at Hong Kong FC. His two sons came through the club’s youth system. The younger son, Jack, has latterly been with South China FC and has been capped more than 20 times for Hong Kong.