A part of Southampton’s Academy since the age of 10, Michael Poke (who was born on the very day the club celebrated its 100^th birthday) was third in the goalkeepers’ pecking order when the club suffered a spate of injuries to their ’keepers late in the 2007-08 season. With Bart Bialkowski already side-lined, Michael was on the bench for a Championship match at Molineux, in which Kelvin Davis broke a figure. So Michael was suddenly off the bench for his debut.

He now needed to be the starting goalkeeper, but it was his turn to pick up an injury on his third start, doing his ankle during the warm-up at Hull.

Rather than field a youth trainee, the manager asked Michael to play on. He did so. The game was lost 5-0 and Michael ruptured the injured ankle in the process.

It would be 10 weeks before he could play again. But his first-team career was over and, although he remained contracted to the club for another two years, nearly all of that time was spent on loan. That included a few Conference appearances for Woking, under ex-Saint Glenn Cockerill, followed by three spells with Torquay: the first two in the Conference; the third in League Two.

Freed by Southampton in 2010, he joined Brighton, but didn’t feature as they pipped the Saints to the League One title in 2011 – or, indeed, the next season, either. Whereupon, he at last joined Torquay on a permanent, two-year contract. Nearly ever-present in his first season, 2012-13, Michael enjoyed the novelty of being the first-choice ’keeper, even as the team plummeted from a play-off position to last-ditch avoidance of another demotion from the Football League. Next stop was Fratton but never making the first team he was allowed to join Eastleigh where a shoulder injury didn’t help his quest to become their number one choice. He moved back to Southampton in an academy coaching role which lasted over two years before moving along the coast to join Portsmouth.