Having left his local club, Barnsley, for Sheffield Wednesday, David Hirst enjoyed 11 seasons at Hillsborough as a strong, yet pacey, striker – never more so than in 1991, as he top-scored for the side that won both promotion from Division II and the League Cup; was voted into the PFA’s divisional Team-of-the-Year; and was then capped twice on England’s summer tour of Australasia. A third, and final, cap followed in February 1992, when he partnered debutant Alan Shearer, v France at Wembley. Early in the 1997-98 season, Hirst wasn’t getting on with his manager, David Pleat.

Taking an instant liking to Dave Jones, whom he described as “the reason I came to Southampton,” he signed and took over Micky Evans’s shirt, alongside Kevin Davies and later Egil Ostenstad, and started every game for the rest of that Premiership campaign.

He wasn’t prolific but notably scored twice on his home debut (3-2 v Spurs) and repeated that act in a 3-2 win at Anfield. But then he injured a knee during a pre-season jog, so badly that his season was limited to two substitute appearances in April 1999. And that was that. Nine months later, he announced his retirement from the full-time game and wound down in Sheffield’s local football. He set up his own business, arranging for celebrities to attend corporate and charitable events. He was also a meeter-and-greeter at Hillsborough and assisted their academy, while his refreshing forthrightness makes him an ideal host on local radio sports-shows. In April 2017 he severed all links with Sheffield Wednesday over the way they were treating his son George, who was on their books. The bad blood meant that he refused to attend the 150^th anniversary celebrations and his son ended up at Leicester, via a 2nd-tier Belgian club, being managed by his good friend Nigel Pearson.