In an age when local hopefuls played a game or two for the Saints, but then went back to their day-job and local football, Bert “Paddy” Paddington, a painter at Eastleigh’s Railway Works, was one who made the grade, albeit in a modest way. That is to say that, in his three seasons at The Dell, he became captain of the Reserves and was an occasional first-team deputy at wing-half.

Those occasions included the second FA Cup replay v Tottenham in February 1902, which got Southampton over the first hurdle on the road to the Final. Indeed, that ranks as Paddy’s finest game for the Saints, for the manner in which he shackled the Spurs strikers, notably their goal-scoring player-manager, John Cameron.

But Bert was never to be rewarded with an extended run in the first team, let alone a game in the Final. By moving to Brighton, newcomers to the Southern League, he got to feature regularly – 31 SL apps in 34 games in the 1903-04 season – but he did not enjoy the team’s struggle to avoid finishing bottom and was pleased, he told the Echo, to return to Eastleigh, where he could play without that kind of pressure.

In 1898, when Winchester were due to entertain Chandlers Ford in a Hampshire Junior Cup-tie, they objected to the inclusion, in the visitors’ line-up, of Bert Paddington, as he did not live in the Chandlers Ford area. The objection was overruled, but the game itself was very dirty and Winchester were later found guilty of inciting the home crowd to assault the visiting players.