Gunner Matt Reilly was a Dubliner, known throughout his football career as “Ginger” or “Gunner”. That career began after he had joined the Royal Artillery and been posted to Glasgow, where he converted from Gaelic football, becoming a goalkeeper with the local side, Benburb. Posted to Portsmouth, he was able to play for the Artillery in the Hampshire League and to start winning things, like the Army Cup in 1895 and the Hants Senior Cup the following year, when

he put on an acclaimed performance in the FA Amateur Cup Final, which Bishop Auckland won 1-0.

The story of how David Phillips, who played in all of those Finals but then contributed to the demise of Freemantle, has been told in his profile. For his part, Reilly was properly loaned to Freemantle and, before that, to Southampton – for whom he kept clean sheets in two 5-0 wins. He was, however, involved with Phillips in the subsequent shenanigans that caused the Artillery to drop out of professional football.

But whereas Phillips then reverted to amateur garrison football, Reilly’s career took off at a newly-formed professional club that had replaced the Artillery in the Southern League: Portsmouth FC. In his five seasons at Fratton Park, Ginger made more than 200 competitive appearances for Pompey and played twice for Ireland v England. He became the landlord of the Duke of Devonshire in Southsea in 1903, but left Portsmouth in 1904, for one-season stops at Dundee in the Scottish First Division, Notts County in England’s First Division – his only season in the Football League – and then Southern League Tottenham.

Whereupon, he returned to Dublin for a couple of Irish League seasons with Shelbourne, during which he picked up another losers’ medal in the Irish Cup. After which, he became a labourer in Dublin. He kept in touch with Pompey, whose guest he was both at their 1934 Cup Final and at their Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1948.