A local lad who had been a schoolboy international, Pat Earles had to bide his time for an opening at Southampton, as a nippy striker in the mode of Bobby Stokes. Having made his debut as sub in December 1974, he saw no further Division II action until the following season’s run-in, when his appearances included his full debut at Portsmouth, coming in for Peter Osgood, one of three curfew-breakers sent home by manager McMenemy. His most important contribution of that season – and, indeed, of his Southampton career – had come in January, though, when he came off the bench for the last 11 minutes of the Third Round FA Cup-tie v Aston Villa. He was involved at the death in a four-man move that culminated in Hugh Fisher’s equaliser. He did not feature again in the winning of the Cup, but the fact is that the Saints needed 15 men to get them to Wembley and Pat has rightly participated in various anniversary celebrations of winning the Cup. He did get a few starts early in the following season, scoring in a 6-2 win at Molineux, but he was allowed to move in January to Third Division Reading, missing only one game as they descended to Division IV.

His goals helped them get back up in 1979, but he had an especially good strike-rate in the Cups. Across all competitions, he was the Royals’ top scorer in each of his first three full seasons and remains in their all-time Top Ten scorers. Pat was still only 28 when he quit League football, with a recurrent hamstring issue and a chronic lower-back problem. He felt able to cope with these handicaps, playing part-time at Road Sea, helping them to win the Southern Premier League, while qualifying at Southampton University. He was working in Winchester Prison in 2003, when the Sun previewed Southampton’s Cup Final appearance with a look-back at their 1976 Cup-run.

He was amazed at the interest thereby generated, among in-mates and officers alike, in his 11 minutes of FA Cup-fame. He finally retired in 2014 having spent a total of 32 years working in the criminal justice system with the probation and youth offender departments but in 2019 he reported that he was frequently being kept on his toes by looking after his grandchildren.