John Summers had progressed rapidly through schools, and local, football to join Second Division Burnley at 16. Having then signed him on pro forms at 17, the Turf Moor management were not giving him a game. They declined to let him join one Division II club, Manchester United, but allowed him to sign for another: Preston North End. Preston released him in turn, after only a season, and John now tried Southern League football at Tunbridge Wells. Regular first-team football did him good and First Division Leicester offered him a fresh start in the Football League. He scored on debut but left, come the summer, for another top-flight club, Derby County – albeit as an understudy to the England winger, Sammy Crooks, a role that brought him only two games in 1934-35.

So it was back to Division II with Southampton, whose Supporters Club helped to finance the deal.

Those fans had cause to feel pleased with their investment, when John became a regular on the right wing,

latterly in partnership with another ex-Derby player, Dick Neal. His appearances tailed off once new manager, Tom Parker, began to ring the changes in March 1938, but John started the 1937-38 season in possession. However, an injury soon cost him his place, in which Billy Bevis promptly became a fixture. So John quit the professional game and joined the Borough Police Force, with which he remained until he retired in 1968. He was just one of several ex-Saints in a Police side that not only dominated locally during the War, but which won twice won the Police Cup in the early post-war seasons: jointly with Sheffield in 1948; and outright in 1951. He ceased playing in 1954, but was chairman of the Force’s football section until 1990.