Alec Simpson arrived in an exchange deal – with Jack Edwards making the reverse-move to Notts County – in November 1952, the month of his 28th birthday. He joined a side lying in the Second Division’s relegation places. Its oldest member, 34 year-old Ted Bates, soon retired, but an ageing team, crippled with injuries and illnesses, would hardly move from that spot and be relegated.

By the time Alec joined the casualty list with a fractured ankle in February, he had captained the side to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup – and the historic defeat by a star-studded Blackpool side in a Dell replay, as analysed in the profiles of Frank Dudley, Henry Horton and Peter Sillett, respectively.

As the fortunate winners trooped off, Stan Mortensen told Alec that, “with this luck, we’re going to win the Cup.” As they so famously did, of course.

Alec returned, ankle mended, for two seasons of Third Division football, during which he headed his only-ever goal for the Saints, being knocked unconscious in the process. The club doctor recommended that he move, as damp and misty Southampton was not helping his wife’s asthma. He went to Shrewsbury and then retired to the Wolverhampton area, where his wife and he, and their three children, ran several fish-and-chip shops.