When Mick Channon was first taken to The Dell, as a nine year-old in 1958, he acquired two heroes: Terry Paine and Derek Reeves.

When he contributed to a Sunday Times series on “Heroes’ Heroes” in 2004, Mick chose to reminisce about Derek,

“a hero, although not an obvious one. In London, they’d probably never heard of him. In our corner of Hampshire, though, he was a cult figure.”

And he was appreciated by his team-mates, too. Inside-forward, Tommy Mulgrew, went so far as to rate Derek ahead of his former team-mate at Newcastle, Jackie Milburn. Derek’s build – “a chubby little chap,” as Channon puts it – helped to make him an unlikely hero and an unlikely scorer. But he had pace; was good in the air for his height; and was not afraid to “stick his head in… amid all the boots.”

And he had Paine and John Sydenham firing in so many crosses that he could afford to miss chances galore and have the crowd around the young Channon moaning, “Oh! Reevsie”. The net result of which was that he headed the Saints’ goal-scoring charts for four consecutive seasons: a feat equalled by Rickie Lambert in 2013. In the last of Derek’s four seasons, 1959-60, he contributed 39 goals to the Saints’ promotion from Division III – still a record, both for the club and for the division – and bagged four goals in the memorable 5-1 win in the FA Cup at Maine Road, described in Paine’s profile.

As Paine and George O’Brien thrived, the following season, in the Second Division, Derek “struggled”, George reckoned, to “find space”. Even so, he did score five in a League Cup-tie v Leeds, a record for the competition that stood until 1989, when Oldham’s Frank Bunn put six past Scarborough.

All in all, then, Derek’s was an exceptional scoring record for a player signed from the Hampshire League’s Bournemouth Gasworks, even though he came to Southampton’s attention while playing, during National Service, in Hong Kong. Once he returned Saints made contact via his Army unit but only after some confusion (see scrapbook section). In his first two seasons at The Dell, he operated at No.8, with Eric Day and Jimmy Shields, in turn, at No.9. But Ted Bates converted him to centre-forward and the goals flowed.

There was a hiccup in 1958-59, when Derek had to relinquish the No.9 shirt to Charlie Livesey. But when Livesey went in the summer of 1959, the stage was set for Reeves’s annus mirabilis of 1959-60.Although he scored a few goals in the Second Division, the debut of Martin Chivers and the signing of George Kirby, both in September 1962, was the signal for Derek to leave for Third Division Bournemouth.

The goals had dried up, however, and, after a non-league spell at Worcester, Derek retired to his native area, to work as a rep’ for a building-firm and then as an ambulance-driver for Dorset Social Services. A nephew, Micky featured for Saints Youth regularly in the early 60s.