It is August 1982 and 18 year-old goalkeeper Alistair Sperring is in Germany, on his first pre-season tour with Southampton as understudy to Peter Wells. Both are getting ready for a training session when – completely out of the blue – Lawrie McMenemy arrives at the training ground, accompanied by his new signing, Peter Shilton. Suddenly being in close proximity to his boyhood idol, a flabbergasted Alistair could not believe his eyes – or his luck at now having one of the world’s top goalkeepers to train with and learn under. He “was young enough not to feel threatened by his signing, knowing his presence would not hold my career back but I remember Wellsie was a bit worried.”

Within a year, Wells had left, while Alistair had turned professional and was now the only other goalkeeper lined up in the 1983 pre-season squad photo – his hero, and now rival, at his left shoulder.

Opportunities were bound to be rare. Indeed, he made the first team only once, a League Cup-tie at Rotherham, which started badly when he had a sixth-minute collision with Mark Wright, whose nose was broken in the incident. Alistair soon drifted out of football, via the lower divisions and non-league, to concentrate on setting up a car-spares venture. He succeeded, becoming the managing-director of Havant Motor Factors, which “supplies the motor industry with quality car components.”