Having joined Hamilton Academical of the Scottish First Division as war broke out in August 1914, Alex Christie started his post-war career in the Southern League with Reading (playing alongside Len Andrews, George Getgood and Jimmy Carr all future Dell team mates, [see scrapbook section]), in preparation for their joining the Football League’s newly-created Third Division in 1920. After two seasons at that level – the second of them with Walsall – he signed for Southampton, newly promoted from that tier to Division II. That proved to be a step too far.

“Quiet in his way of getting around,” the Echo observed, he “took great care in placing the ball to his forwards,” but let himself down with “slight hesitation in his tackles.”

To be a half-back understudying Bert Shelley, who would miss only four games in the Saints’ first five seasons in the Football League, was to be in a role with little obvious future. So, although he was placed on the retained list after his five appearances in the spring of 1923, he opted to go back to the Third Division, initially with Norwich and then with Rochdale and Exeter. Whereupon, he returned to the Southern League with Aldershot. They, too, would soon be admitted to Division III(S), but Alex would not get to play with them at that level. With his Football League career over, he ended his playing days with a Reading brewery team.