Newly arrived from Coventry City in April 1912, Southampton’s trainer, Jim McIntyre, brought with him a knowledge of midlands football – on the strength of which he recommended Fred Taylor, a forward who had failed to make it in the Football League with Second Division Hull but who had just completed the 1911-12 season as a prolific goalscorer, with Wellington Town in the Birmingham League, while working as a tool-maker.

Duly signed, Fred played the first 11 games of the Saints’ Southern League season at inside-right. He scored only once but, then, goals were hard to come by in a run that included seven defeats and only one win. However widely the blame might have been spread, Fred was one who carried the can. He would soon get two more chances, scoring on the second one, but that was that. He would see out the rest of the season with infrequent Southern Alliance appearances, before moving to Barrow in the Lancashire Combination and then to Llanelli in the Welsh League. In 1939 he was a toolmaker/bottle riveter living in Rowley Regis in the West Midlands.