Terry Paine came late and then accelerated furiously. While other members of the Southampton side that reached the FA Youth Cup semi-finals in 1957 were winning Youth caps, Terry’s only international recognition, at that age, was for England’s National Association of Boys Clubs vs their Scottish counterparts in February 1957. After which, it was due to be business-as-normal, working in the Body Shop at British Rail’s Eastleigh sheds and playing Hampshire League football for Winchester City, his home-town club which he’d joined from Highcliffe Corinthians, the team from the council estate he’d grown up on. But with other clubs interested – Terry had been invited back to Arsenal for a second trial, having been deemed “a bit small” at an earlier one – Southampton’s manager, Ted Bates decided it was time to act.

On the Monday after his NABC appearance¸ Terry signed pro. Then, on the next three Saturdays, he made consecutive debuts: for Southampton “A”, the Reserves and the first team. Impressed by the way the debutant “cut in from the wing,” the Echo predicted that he would become “a scoring winger”.

Which he duly became, at Aldershot the following Saturday, with his first goal for the club, on his 18th birthday. Terry was playing on the left, prompting Bates to tell reporters that they ain’t seen nothing yet – he was “a much better outside-right.” The following season, he pretty much took up residence on the right. Johnny Walker, his inside-forward when Terry made his Reserves debut, had told Bates

“what a wonderful player this lad’s going to be,”

but some of the senior pros raised their eyebrows at the lad’s rapid promotion. Walker would be proved right about “the best winger I ever played with” – a No.7 with a better left foot, Johnny reckoned, than Stanley Matthews.

All of which served Terry well as he played on – and on – for Southampton, until the end of the 1973-74 season, during which Lawrie McMenemy succeeded Bates.

In his 17 full-seasons for the club, Terry missed only 22 of the League games he might have played in and had seven ever-present League seasons.

How did he do it? Mike Langley of the People put it down to his obeying a few “simple rules” that included “never crying off with anything less trivial than double pneumonia or a broken leg.” Despite the standards of tackling then prevalent – as Terry likes to put it, anything below the throat was legitimate – he had a knack of jumping out of challenges. Not for nothing did John McGrath call him “Pogo”. After bringing his total appearances for the Saints to 816, he became Hereford’s player-coach in 1974.

His centre-forward, Dixie McNeil, topped the Football League’s scorers for the two seasons, 1974-75-76, just as Ron Davies had in 1966-67-68. Coincidence or what? Terry won a Division III championship medal at Hereford in 1976, as he had at Southampton in 1960. He won 19 caps for England, the last of them during the 1966 World Cup finals (see scrapbook section). The autumn of 1963 was special: he scored v the Rest of the World (see below) and bagged a hat-trick v N Ireland.

Terry partnered Jimmy Greaves for England 14 times. Greaves averaged 1.21 goals in those games, compared with 0.63 in his other 43 internationals.

Coincidence or what? Terry was appointed MBE in 1977 and was one of the 100 “Legends” honoured by the Football League in its centenary celebrations of 1998-99. He became an honorary doctor of Solent University in 2009 and President of Southampton FC on 1 January 2013, notwithstanding that he lives in Johannesburg. He’d emigrated to South Africa in 1984 and, after managing part-time at amateur level, managed in the top pro League. Having been a TV pundit for the SABC’s coverage of the 1990 World Cup, he joined what would become the Supersport channel, a world-leader in TV sports-casting. And then he bought a football team that adopted that name. He functioned mainly “upstairs”, but did step in briefly as a caretaker-manager. His move into management had been far from straightforward. During a short Southern League spell at Cheltenham, his disciplinarian approach was resisted by players who’d signed up for some fun.

This problem was even worse in South Africa, where many a British manager had failed to combat lackadaisical attitudes. And a black player might be especially uncomfortable with the abrasive managerial style and colourful language imported from the British dressing-room.Terry rose above that problem, winning a reputation, at the top of the South African game, for nurturing its multi-culturalism, even while apartheid still ruled. Which helps to explain why he was chosen to be an Ambassador for the nation’s bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

That bid failed, but when South Africa won the vote to host the 2010 tournament, Terry assisted the relevant officer – a Saints fan from Lymington – at the British High Commission in Pretoria, with the arrangements for welcoming England fans. But only when golfing and horse-racing commitments permitted.Should you require further details of Terry’s many achievements, beware when you Google his name. Your “hit” might be a horse.

In 1976, Herbert Blagrave, the then Southampton president and a racing man of note, named one of his horses “Terry Paine”. Terry played 785 times, only four of them as sub, for Ted Bates. Given the agent-infested nature of today’s game and the fragility of managerial contracts, that record of appearances for one manager long appeared to be unbeatable – until Ryan Giggs appeared 941 times for Sir Alex Ferguson. However, because Giggs came on as a substitute so often, it seemed that Paine’s record of 781 starts for Bates might not be overtaken. But in his final managerial season – 2012-13 – Sir Alex brought Giggs’s starts up to 788. Terry remains top-dog, though, in one respect. He had five early baths: sent off twice; and substituted three times by Ted Bates. Giggs was taken off by Ferguson 118 times in the League alone, never mind Cups and the rest, so Terry’s milestone of 776 games started and finished for one manager appears to be miles away from any opposition.