The son of a government-worker, José Gallego arrived in England as a 14-year-old – along with three sisters and younger brother, Antonio, who would make one appearance in goal for Norwich City – as his Basque father fled the Spanish Civil War. The brothers teamed up for Cambridge City, coached by ex-Saint Vic Watson, to help win the East Anglian Cup in 1946. Moving to The Dell, via Brentford, José scored on his Reserves debut at outside-left in August 1948 and soon had his one and only first-team outing in that position. The Echo deemed his debut “most promising” and felt “he deserved another try”.

José was not to get it, however, and nor did he want it. The match would later be recaptured in the Daily Telegraph musings of Barnsley’s very own Michael Parkinson, who was unduly tickled by the likeness of José’s surname to that of the Italian astronomer, Galileo.

But it was no laughing matter for José, who was given a hard time by Parkinson’s cult hero, “Skinner” Normanton, and came out of the game with a cracked ankle.

He recovered to play a dozen more games for the Reserves, that season, but the club was well-endowed with wingers and an appearance, even at that level, proved beyond him in 1949-50. Having had enough of full-time football, he turned down a move to Exeter in the summer of 1950, preferring to take up a part-time position at Football League new-boys, Colchester United, where the Saints’ veteran full-back Bill Rochford had just become player-coach. That didn’t work out and he was soon playing non-League football in or not far from Cambridge, where he spent 30 years with the Gas Board as a meter-inspector. He continued to play golf into his late seventies.