Oxford-born Dexter had chosen to leave his home-town club as a 17-year-old, for Southampton, “because they were a big club and not too far from home,” he reasoned, “but mainly because of the reputation of their youth academy.” His goals soon contributed significantly to the Academy side’s winning the U-19 title.

And he had no sooner signed pro and been given his first-team debut than he scored a “perfect” hat-trick – a goal with each foot and one with his head – in the League Cup v Colchester.

But then Harry Redknapp arrived.

He opted to play the hitherto-sidelined Peter Crouch in partnership with Kevin Phillips and to loan Dexter to Plymouth, where he was a regular in Argyle’s Championship side. In his absence, Southampton was themselves relegated to that division, a level at which Dexter was destined to keep playing – though not a lot for the Saints, as he moved around the second tier, initially loaned by Redknapp to Derby. He returned to play a few games for a new manager, George Burley, memorably including an FA Cup-tie at Newcastle, where he came on as the team’s third substitute and spent the last 12 minutes comically cocooned in an oversize goalkeeper’s jersey, following an injury to Bart Bialkowski.

His outfield efforts were not enough to prevent Burley from buying Bradley Wright-Phillips and selling Dexter to QPR. Rangers’ investment of £500,000 in an unproven 20-year-old was amply repaid, as Dexter played regularly and got among the goals – until he was loaned, and then sold, to Nottingham Forest. A regular in 2009-10, he suffered a career-threatening knee injury, the following season. But he came back well in the second half of 2011-12 when he won his first full international honors. He had played for England at levels up to U-21, but now exploited his grandfather’s birth-place to represent Antigua and Barbuda.

A regular for Forest in 2012-13, Dexter was loaned out to Leeds – yet another Championship club for him – in October 2013 but another serious knee injury meant he returned prematurely and played no more football until September of the following season. In September 2016 he and Forest mutually parted company and he signed a three-year contract with Rotherham, but after just 12 months he decided he had had enough of football and he retired aged 31 to concentrate on his business interests. In October 2019 he was fined £24,000 after inspectors found a number of properties he owns in disrepair and he admitted 12 licensing offenses at Nottingham Magistrates Court. He was, at the time, living in Papplewick, a village not far from Nottingham and notwithstanding his foray into the property world, he was also working for UK Meds, an online pharmacy company. With the outbreak of COVID 19 his company suddenly found itself very much in demand (see scrapbook section).