Cheshire-born Peter Whiston played for all three of Devon’s League clubs on his way to Southampton. In his three seasons at third-tier Exeter, he made quite an impression – such that forum-fans were recalling him, 20 years on, as

a “classy” and “cultured” centre-back;

and, more importantly his manager, Alan Ball, decided, following his move to Southampton, to shell out £30,000 to bring Peter to the Premier League. Matt Le Tissier’s admiration of Bally knew few bounds, but he ventured, in his autobiography, that Alan was prone to “impulsive excesses in the transfer market,” which his mentor, Lawrie McMenemy, would curb. The signing of Whiston in the summer of 1994 is cited as an example – though given that Ball acted while McMenemy was away for a few days, there was perhaps a degree of calculation about this “impulse”.

Either way, it was too big a step for Peter – “a nice lad,” Le Tissier reckoned, “but never Premiership quality.” So Peter’s Premier League experience consisted of coming off the bench at Newcastle during a 5-1 defeat. He was soon out on loan at third-tier Shrewsbury, for whom he then signed – at a profit to Southampton of £20,000 on Ball’s punt. When a serious knee-problem ended his League career prematurely, he went home to Widnes, where he played and managed locally for a while and went into financial advising. In January 2012, he and his wife became directors of the newly-incorporated GPSE Consultancy in Blackburn and were still there in 2020.