Sam Meston was born in Southampton in 1902, a month after his father, Sammy Meston, had brought home his second FA Cup losers’ medal with the Saints. As a 19 year-old centre-forward signing for the club from Sholing Athletic (see scrapbook section), he was going to have to be patient: in the next season-and-a-half, he would get but two opportunities to deputise for Bill Rawlings. But then he started 1923-24 with a run of six games at outside-right. In the third of those games, he at last made his home debut, which he celebrated with a couple of goals that prompted the Echo to deem him

“a distinct find for the Saints.” 

Deserving of that accolade or not, he was still on the right wing, come October, when he broke his leg.

It would be two-and-a-half seasons before he played in Division II again, when, in a comeback against Chelsea in April 1926, he broke the same leg again.

That would be his last game for Southampton but, having made a full recovery over the summer, he had signed up for Hampshire League Cowes, when Gillingham offered him Third South football. He proved up to the challenge – so much so that Everton whisked him away, effectively as cover during their rampant run-in to the First Division title. He would get only one game – playing alongside Dixie Dean – and then spend the next season in Everton’s Reserves. After which, he left – reportedly because he refused to become a freemason – for three seasons of regular football with Third North Tranmere. Returning to Southampton in 1932, he turned out occasionally for Newport (Isle of Wight), while becoming a partner in a Woolston-based bookmaker’s.

He took time out to work at Thornycrofts during the War, but then continued as a bookie until he died of heart attack at the age of 51.