A schoolboy inside-forward, Norman Kirkman had become a full-back by the time he signed for Burnley in the summer of 1939.With the outbreak of war, he would never play for them. During the War, he became a navigator in the RAF, for whom he played, while also guesting widely. After a post-war spell with Third North Rochdale, Norman played in the Second Division for Chesterfield, Leicester City and Southampton, in turn. Manager Sid Cann had been experimenting with ways of filling the gap left at left-back by Bill Rochford, when he acquired Norman –

a “cool, professional player,” according to the Echo,

to start the 1950-51 season. Injured in only his second game, Norman’s efforts to re-establish himself were thwarted by further experiments and the emergence of Peter Sillett. In March 1952, he left Southampton for Third South Exeter in a transaction that speaks to the feudal conditions of the time. Like so many married footballers, Norman lived in a house provided by the club – a rodent-infested one, in his case. On her way home, Norman’s wife, Winifred, saw a newspaper bill-board, announcing his departure. But Norman knew nothing about it when he got in.

Arriving, just after, the “rat-catcher” mentioned the deal. Winifred was not impressed that “the rat-catcher knows more than us.” The directors of the two clubs then came to confirm that Exeter’s manager, George Roughton, was Dell-bound, while Norman would be going to St James’s Park as player-manager. “You couldn’t stand and argue about it,” Winifred explained in Ted Bates’s biography. If you did, “you’d no job.” Following further managerial ventures, Norman scouted for several clubs from his home-town Bolton. In Southampton’s case, that mainly involved spying on upcoming opponents.