He is not a perfect player but one of those useful fellows whom you can place anywhere with confidence. He is better at half than back but play him where you will, he is always a worker. A genial big-hearted fellow of this sort is always a considerable asset in any team.

So said the Football Echo soon after Ted Killean’s arrival at The Dell. A former Coldstream Guardsman, he had by then made almost 150 appearances in the Football League, mainly on his doorstep with First Division Blackburn, where he had converted from inside-forward to wing-half.

All three half-back positions at Southampton were strongly filled at the time and Ted was limited to a few games at centre-half, deputising for Arthur Chadwick, as the Saints won the Southern League in 1901, for the fourth time in five seasons. He moved, within that League, to regular football at New Brompton and then returned to Lancashire, where he had a few games with Blackpool in the Football League’s Division II.