Having come through north-eastern football to Southern League Coventry, Fred Turnbull did not stop long. Coventry’s trainer, Jimmy McIntyre, was to blame. He moved, within that League, to Southampton and soon came back for Turnbull.

After an impressive warm-up in one of the charity-cups, Fred scored on his Southern League debut, three days later, at centre-forward. But his season in that League would mainly consist of two spells at inside-forward, with but one goal to show for it – against Coventry, naturally.

Whatever his position, Fred had a crowd-pleasing bustle about him.

But the pleasure was short-lived. At the end of the season, he returned to his native Tyneside, where he played non-league for North Shields, while working as a blacksmith. In 1915, he enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry and served in France until 1917. Whereupon, Lance-Corporal Turnbull was repatriated to Tyneside, where he undertook war-work in the Marsden Quarries, until he was demobbed in April 1919.