George Jones was 29 by the time he arrived at The Dell and yet his career had never quite taken off. He was playing in the Birmingham League with Crewe when the First World War interrupted “official” football. He spent the last war-time season – during which he represented Northern Command – with Bury in the Lancashire War League. In the course of his season with Southampton, he represented the South Eastern League XI, scoring twice, against the London Combination.

To put it bluntly, he was being honoured for his success as a Reserve –

which was about as much as an understudy to Bill Rawlings, at centre-forward, could hope for. His big break came in a spring-time run of five first-team games in which he scored five goals. But that was that. As the Saints began a new life in the Football League in 1920, George was on his way home, via Goole, to non-league football in Lancashire. In 1939 his occupation intriguingly was given as a “ladies felt hat steamer”. An occupation the authorities would surely struggle to utilise during the conflict?