Tom Barlow was at The Dell just one season, but that was long enough to be the only Southampton player to be featured on the highly-sought after ‘Baines Cards’. (Bradford-based John Baines invented the football card in 1885 and sold them in packets of 6 for 1/2d up until the 1920s. They are highly collectable). Barlow had been a finisher at a bleach works whilst at First Division Bolton Wanderers, but decided to try his luck with Saints in 1902. The Directors considered him to be “a capture” and the local press declared him to be

“a player who combined good ball control and distribution with legitimate trickery.”

Such was his form in the forward line that he played in an international trial for the South v North at Tottenham in 1903. Unfortunately he grew homesick, and at the end of the season returned to Burnden Park, although he came south a year later to sign for Millwall. In 1939, back in Lancashire his occupation was listed as an “unemployed clerk”.