By scoring three times in the club’s first game, Charles (“Ned”) Bromley wrote his name into the record books as the scorer of the Saints’ first hat-trick, albeit in a non-competitive match.

He would have to wait a couple of seasons – by which time he had become captain and the press had begun to drop the “Young Men’s Association”- suffix – before the club entered a competition: the Hampshire Junior Cup. Having scored seven goals as St Mary’s won the Cup at their first attempt, Ned relinquished the captaincy upon moving to London to study dentistry.

He was able to commute though, and was almost ever-present as the Saints retained the trophy in 1889. But a serious leg injury, sustained in a six-a-side tournament just after the Final, restricted his future playing career to some infrequent games for the Reserves. He could now concentrate on his dental career, which would take him to Chester where he set up his own practice and then on to Gibraltar in 1924. He retired from his Chester practice in 1939 and then went to Darlington to live with his daughter. Ned was also no mean rugby player in his youth, turning out for Trojans and Hampshire. His obituary, on the right, gives fuller details.