A local discovery, Bert Dyer became a second-team regular during the 1906-07 season and had a solitary first-team jaunt in a 4-2 victory over Northampton, after Sam Jepp had been taken ill shortly before kick-off. That was as good as it got at Southampton. He then joined Gainsborough Trinity, of the Football League’s Second Division, but, all within the month of September 1908, he had returned to The Dell and moved on again to Eastleigh Athletic.

Thereupon, he flitted from club to club, locally, finally settling at Romsey Town, where he won a Hants Senior Cup medal. His occupation in 1911 was listed as a “ship’s stoker” and he was living at 11 Clifford St but, some time thereafter his health began to fail him (he appears to have no record of serving in WW1). Having been an all-round local sportsman in his twenties, Bert endured “a long and painful illness”, from which he died, aged only 31, in 1918.