Frankie Bennett was in his first season as a part-time professional with Southern League Halesowen, while working as a hotel porter-cum-waiter, when Southampton snapped him up. Ian Branfoot had been operating for 18 months without the speed and width that Rod Wallace had given his predecessor.

There was a vacancy, then, for a nippy winger.

Bennett started the 1993-94 season as a playing sub – a role he would occasionally fulfill in the half-season that remained of Branfoot’s reign and during which he sprinted through Chelsea’s defence to score his only ever goal for the Saints.

Frankie could certainly sprint and could even dazzle, only to be disappointing in the next game – or even the same game.

Taking over from Branfoot, Alan Ball was not bedazzled and left Frankie out in the cold for 18 months. Dave Merrington’s appointment was initially good news for Frankie, who soon had his first League start and featured in half of the first 22 League games of the 1995-96 season. But that was that and, come October, he was loaned to third-tier Shrewsbury. In the second of his two starts for them, he was Man-of-the-Match against Bristol Rovers, whose manager, Ian Holloway, promptly came in for him.

“Frankie was outstanding”

for Rovers, according to the local press – always provided that “he was fit and on form.”

Which wasn’t that often: his 44 League appearances, spread over three seasons, were mostly from the bench. Frankie blames his knees, which had become so dodgy by the time he was loaned to Exeter that they could no longer withstand daily training. Hence the move into non-league football, starting in the Conference with Forest Green Rovers – for whom he was a half-time substitute when they lost in the FA Umbro Trophy Final in 2001 – and finishing at Brislington in the Western League. By now, he was again a part-timer, living near Bristol and delivering parcels for UPS.