Only 15 when he signed schoolboy forms for Southampton, Tommy Widdrington was another hot prospect from the Jack Hixon production-line. This remarkable scout was not only a mentor to him but “the closest of personal friends until the day he died.”

Basically a tough, combative midfielder, Tommy would prove capable of adapting to other positions – although he perhaps looked more comfortable when he was facing the play.

Developing under Dave Merrington’s wing, he signed pro for Chris Nicholl. Ian Branfoot loaned him to third-tier Wigan, but gave him his top-flight debut before the 1991-92 season was out. He had a few games for Branfoot, the following season, but was more in favour with Alan Ball and with Merrington, when he had his solitary campaign in charge.

With several clubs sniffing round, following Merrington’s brutal sacking and Graeme Souness’s arrival, Tommy elected to join second-tier Grimsby for a fee of £300,000, then a club record for the Mariners. This was the start of eight-and-a-half seasons in the Football League, in which he made almost 300 appearances, to add to his 75 games in the Premiership.

Grimsby would be relegated at the end of his first season, but would bounce straight back – the first of four promotions for Tommy – and win the Auto Windscreen Shield into the bargain. By the end of the following season, he was on loan to Port Vale where he was once sent off for Saints in a cup-tie. He soon made that permanent and was a member of Vale’s LDV Vans Trophy-winning squad of 2001, before two “fantastic” seasons at fourth-tier Hartlepool, where he had another promotion in 2002-03. Then he dropped back to the basement at Macclesfield and had a brief second spell at Port Vale, under ex-Saint Martin Foyle, during which his appearance at Edgeley Park meant that he had played at the grounds of all the 92 clubs, across four divisions – a distinction he shared with his former Dell team-mate, Kevin Moore.

Then another ex-Saint, Nick Holmes, invited Tommy to join him at Salisbury, where two more promotions came his way, from the Southern Premier in 2006 and from the Conference South, the following season. Appointed manager when Holmes “moved upstairs” in July 2009, Tommy took Salisbury to the FA Trophy semi-finals and a respectable finish in the Blue Square Premier. In the close-season, however, the Whites were hammered with a two-division demotion for failing to pay creditors in full by the required deadline. When Paul Sturrock took over at fourth-tier Southend United, following their relegation in 2010, Tommy joined as his assistant. But when a new chief executive brought a new approach, Tommy’s position was soon made redundant. Being out of work was a new experience for him.

It didn’t last long. Having briefly managed at Southern League Hemel Hempstead, Tommy returned to Conference South management at Eastbourne in 2012. When Paul Tisdale was sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in February 2021 he stepped in as temporary manager for the second time.