In December 1965, Ted Bates was pursuing Kilmarnock’s goalkeeper, Campbell Forsyth. Kilmarnock, the newly-crowned Scottish champions, were playing in the European Cup. Bates had a deal. As soon as Kilmarnock went out of the competition, Campbell would discuss signing for him. In the Second Round, Kilmarnock drew 2-2 at home to Real Madrid. If they were to lose at the Bernabéu in the second leg, Bates would meet Campbell at Heathrow, as his party changed planes on the way home. But, after a 5-1 defeat, the plane was held up by fog.

New arrangements were made to bring Campbell to Southampton, where he duly signed. Terry Paine was “over the moon”. He had recently played for England at Hampden, when Campbell was winning the first of his four Scotland caps (see scrapbook). Picking Campbell for his Select XI, in his biography, Terry describes him as

“my kind of ’keeper: big and commanding.”

Campbell came straight into a side lying seventh in Division II. Promotion was achieved and, after three wins in seven First Division matches, the Saints were in mid-table when Liverpool came to The Dell in September 1966. In a pile-up with Denis Hollywood and the visitor’s Ian Callaghan, Campbell broke his leg. He was out for the season and would have to compete for his place, in 1967-68, with Bates’s latest goalkeeping hope from Scotland, Eric Martin. Campbell got his place back – in two spells, the first of which ended in a 5-1 home defeat by Leicester City. The visitors’ fifth goal was scored by Peter Shilton, whose long clearance bounced and flew over a stranded Forsyth. Campbell blamed the way the groundsman, Len Stansbridge, hand-painted his pitch-markings. But his defence that the ball hit one of Stansbridge’s “hard-baked, painted lines and it shot” is not borne out by the video evidence or by Shilton’s own verdict – that it was “just a complete fluke”. However you explain it, it did not help Campbell’s rehabilitation. His “confidence was shattered” and, after another short burst of appearances, he quit the game. Watneys employed him as their Edinburgh representative for 28 years and he scouted for Bates in Scotland. Three of his recommendations – Jim Steele, Gerry O’Brien and Ally MacLeod – would play first-team football for the Saints.

He later became a corporate host for the Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club. When he built his retirement bungalow in Falkirk, he named it “The Dell”. One of Campbell’s daughters married Stuart Burgess, who had a long career in Scotland, notably for Falkirk in the top-flight. Their son, Cameron, who played for Scotland U-19s, was on Fulham’s books and more recently Accrington Stanley’s. Another grandson, Blair, played semi-pro in Australia, including a spell under Steve Neville at Sorrento.

Campbell passed away of heart failure in the autumn of 2020.