After a long spell as an amateur with Cardiff City, during which he was capped three times at that level by Wales (see scrapbook section), Bill Moore signed pro forms. Then, having never made the first team that had slid down to the Third South, he joined Southampton. His only appearance for the Saints’ Second Division side would pass unrecorded until 1992.

For the third game of the 1936-37 season, he had travelled to Villa Park as 12th man (it was the first 2nd Division match ever played at the ground) and had even been photographed, in the line-up, as such – dressed in civvies (see below), as was the way – when new arrival, Bobby Whitelaw, who was stripped and ready for his first start, was taken ill. Moore stepped in, but the late change seems to have fooled everybody, not least the Echo reporter, who had probably never set eyes on either man.

Asked in 1993 why the assistant-manager John McIlwane had not corrected the team-sheet, Moore’s explanation was that he thought McIlwane couldn’t write. The story is further confused by Bobby Kennedy telling the Echo in 1953 that he had played in the game. The liklehood is Moore had played but the club had not told the match officials for fear the late substitution would not be permitted and Whitelaw was still covering up, 17 years later.

When the new manager, Tom Parker, arrived in the spring of 1937, Bill fell out with him and was promptly transferred to Wolves, then a top Division I outfit. His stay at Molineux was soon cut short, however, by a serious knee injury and he was released. By October 1937, he had joined the Southampton Police. He had thereby signed up to play for a very strong works-team (see scrapbook section), which won the National Police Forces knock-out trophy in 1948.

What’s more, Bill flourished as a police officer, rising to the rank of Chief Superintendent. When the ‘Alphabet of the Saints‘ was published in 1992 Bill got in touch with the authors to ask why he had not been included.