Josh Sims would possibly reflect on his Southampton career as being unfulfilled, but at least it included one moment at Anfield which will live on indelibly in the memories of those there and the ones watching the League Cup semi-final second leg live on television. Saints were grimly holding on to their one-goal advantage earned in the home leg and the game had just gone into added injury time when, after a Liverpool corner, the ball fell to Josh on the edge of his own area. Rather than hoof it into safety, the graduate from the academy accelerated into a diagonal run, pursued by several Liverpool players who struggled to keep up. As he burst towards the home penalty area he laid the ball sideways to Shane Long who had also sprinted up the right side of the pitch. Taking one touch Long then finished with aplomb to cap off an extremely dynamic counter-attack which the Guardian described as “brilliant”.

Having provided such an exhilarating “assist” and displayed such a turn of pace, Josh could have expected to have built on that memorable night but, suffering a long-term knee injury that sidelined him for nine months and with the name plate on the manager’s door at St Mary’s changing on a regular basis – he had five managers following his debut in 2016 – in he struggled to find consistency and had make loan moves to find regular football. One of those was to the USA and it was a pity that Covid put paid to his hopes that his stay with New York Red Bulls could be extended. His contract expired in the summer of 2021 and the club chose not to offer him a fresh one.

There were plenty of Championship clubs interested in acquiring his services but a succession of niggling injuries and catching Covid lead to a series of illnesses that were serious enough for him to be hospitalised on more than one occasion and bed ridden for long periods. Ulcerative colitis was diagnosed at first but then the steroids he was asked to take triggered a heart condition known as myocarditis and then pericarditis. Southampton made their medical expertise available to him and towards the later part of 2021 he was able to train at Staplewood three times a week as he bid to get back to some sort of fitness. Happily in February 2022 he was fit enough to accept a permanent contract with Scottish Premiership side, Ross County.