Harry Offer contrived to play for two clubs in the FA Cup before the Saints ever entered the competition: in 1887 and 1888 for Swindon; and then, having missed Arsenal’s inaugural tie in 1889, he played – and scored – the following season, in their first-ever match in the competition Proper. Like Swindon and the Saints, Arsenal had yet to join a League, so it promised to be the start of something big for Harry when, soon after that last Cup-tie, he joined Burnley of the Football League. But he never made the first team and was soon back at Swindon, still scoring goals in the FA Cup, until he joined St Mary’s, for one final season of Cups and friendlies, in 1893. 

Having played at full-back in the Saints’ two FA Cup matches in November, he switched to the attack, mostly at centre-forward, for the various county Cup matches, later in the season, and scored a few goals. He started 1894-95, the inaugural season of the Southern League, at inside-right and scored Southampton’s first goal in this League.

He played as a forward in most of that season’s League games and all of the Cup matches, but then retired. He worked as a road-labourer for a while, but later reverted to his original trade as a joiner. During WW1 he was a carpenter and joiner at Thornycrofts but in the 1921 census declared himself unemployed.