They Played in the Southern League

Featuring players who spent some if not all of their careers in the league.

Keith Bertschin

Keith Bertschin began his playing career with then-Southern League Premier Division club Barnet.

His professional career started in 1973 after joining Ipswich Town under Bobby Robson.

He made 32 appearances and scored 8 goals during a three-year spell with the Tractor Boys, often being used when England centre-forward Paul Mariner was injured.

He then moved onto playing for Birmingham City, signing for a fee of £135,000 for a four-year spell until 1981.

He then subsequently signed for Norwich City from 1981 for another four-year period and thereafter signed for Stoke City where he had a three-year spell.

He then had spells at Sunderland, Walsall and Chester City and finally at Aldershot in 1991.

He also widened his horizons and played in the United States for the Jacksonville Tea Men in 1982 before he decided to concentrate his skills on a more managerial and coaching role.

After hanging up his full-time boots, Bertschin turned out for Solihull Borough in the Southern League Premier Division and then had short stints with Evesham United, Worcester City, Hednesford Town, Tamworth, Stafford Rangers and in the then-new League of Wales outfit Barry Town.

Capped three times by England under-21s, he was appointed as part of the coaching staff at Birmingham City, working for former Norwich team-mate Steve Bruce’s assistant over a nine-year period in the top two tiers of English football at Birmingham, Wigan Athletic, Sunderland and Hull City.

He was appointed as manager of Solihull Moors in November 2016 until June 2018.

Kevin Dove

Midfielder who started out with his home-town club Northampton Town.

He moved to Southern League Bedford Town in the summer of 1973 and went on to make 214 appearances for the Eagles, scoring 21 goals.

He made the journey to the Dorset coast to sign for Weymouth at the start of the 1977/78 season along with Bedford team-mate Peter Hawkins for a combined fee of £1,500.

He helped the Terras to finish second in the Premier Division as well as runners-up in the League Cup – that same season saw Bedford relegated!

Another second-place finish followed in the Alliance Premier League in 1979/80, before he helped win the Bob Lord Trophy in 1982 when his spell at the club eventually came to an end.

In his five years with Weymouth, he scored 48 goals in 248 appearances.

In 1982 he returned to the Southern League Premier Division with Dorchester Town where he stayed until retiring from playing in 1986.

He was later youth team manager and a Director at Dorchester and ran a decorating business with former team-mate Peter Hawkins in Weymouth.

Jason Burnham

Jason Burnham was a defender who started his career as a trainee at Notts County before moving to Northampton Town in 1991.

He played for the Cobblers for three seasons, making 88 League appearances and scoring 2 goals.

He was transferred to Chester City in 1994 and then to Southern League Premier Division side Worcester City in August 1996.

In 1999 he transferred to Boston United for a £5,000 fee, having been player of the year at Worcester for 97/98.

Moved on to Cambridge City and later played Rugby Town, Atherstone United, Halesowen Town and Aylesbury United, Banbury United, Racing Club Warwick, Cogenhoe United and then Woodford United and Wellingborough Town – the latter two he also managed.

Alan Brazil

These days, Alan Brazil is a well-known voice on TalkSport.

However, as a player the Scotsman burst on to the scene at Ipswich Town, scoring an incredible 70 goals in 154 appearances for Bobby Robson`s impressive young team.

Although big-money moves to Tottenham Hotspur and subsequently Manchester United never saw Brazil replicate his early promise, he still proved to be more than useful in front of goal.

He would also go on to represent Coventry City and Queen’s Park Rangers as well as being capped 15 times by Scotland and was part of their twenty-two-man squad that played at the FIFA World Cup Finals in Spain back in 1982.

Back problems forced him to quit the full-time game in 1987, although he did turn out for his local team, Witham Town, in the Isthmian League Division One North, for whom he scored 10 times in 25 games.

In 1988 he went `down under` to join Wollongong City in Australia's National Soccer League but returned to Europe to spend his final season with Swiss second-tier outfit FC Baden.

Govan-born Brazil spent two spells with Chelmsford City originally signing in the summer of 1988, sandwiched between his time in Australia and Switzerland, under the management of Chris Symes, shortly after City had suffered relegation from the Southern Premier Division.

He made 7 appearances for City in that first spell, scoring 3 goals.

City went on to win the Southern League Southern Division in what was a record-breaking season.

He made one further appearance for City on Monday, November 5 - 1990 in a home Southern League Cup win over Baldock Town.

City had lost the first leg 2-1 but two goals from Dennis Greene saw the side, managed by Danny O'Leary go through 3-2 on aggregate.

That proved to be the conclusion of his second spell with the Clarets and after another short stint with FC Baden, his last games were played for Stambridge in the Essex Senior League.

Andy Forbes

In 2016, at the age of 36, one of the best players to wear a Winchester City shirt, made a surprise return to the Denplan City Ground.

Then-director of football Dave Malone decided to sound out Forbes about helping Winchester's Southern League Division One South & West play-off quest.

To his surprise and delight, he got a positive response with Forbes agreeing to sign on for the remainder of a season that ended with a play-off defeat to Banbury United after finishing fifth.

The striker’s legendary 76-goal exploits of 2003/04 will live forever in the memories of Winchester fans who still revered the marksman long after he had left for Eastleigh at the end of that sparkling FA Vase-winning campaign.

Forbes had hung up his boots following a successful stint as a defender for Gosport Borough which included a 2014 trip to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final.

Reading born Forbes began his career at his home-town club.

He became well-known as a goalscorer after netting over 350 times in the Wessex League for Andover and Winchester before he was snapped up by Eastleigh.

His goalscoring continued at the higher-level. However, after a spell when Gosport were short defensively, Forbes also found a role as a very competent defender.

Ken Leek

Ken Leek was born in Ynysybwl in July 1935.

He didn`t play football until he was 14 having attended two rugby-playing schools.

He joined Northampton Town as a 17-year-old and, despite losing two years through National Service, he soon made the first team and played and scored in the club's epic FA Cup win against Arsenal in 1958.

By the end of the season, he had joined Leicester City but made history by still having a testimonial at Northampton after making 71 appearances and scoring 27 goals.

He became a prolific scorer with Leicester and won the first of his 13 Welsh international caps (5 goals), but his Leicester career came to an end when he was dropped from the 1961 FA Cup Final against league champions Tottenham Hotspur, despite having scored in every round.

He joined Newcastle United but within five months he returned to the Midlands with Birmingham City and in three and a half seasons netted 60 goals including two in a two-legged League Cup final against Aston Villa making him extremely popular in the blue half of Birmingham!

Leek returned to Northampton in time to help the club in to Division One and scored the winning goal against West Ham, giving Northampton their first win.

His stay at the County Ground was short, Bradford City needed a goalscorer and he obliged with 25 goals, helping the club from re-election strugglers to finish the season just one point off promotion.

He wound down his career as a player with then-Cheshire League side Rhyl and in the Southern League with Merthyr Tydfil and as player-manager with Welsh non-League side Ton Pentre before returning to Northamptonshire and taking a job with Fords in Daventry, for whom he worked until retirement.

He sadly died in November 2007, aged 72.

One of his grandchildren is Newcastle United goalkeeper Karl Darlow.

Bobby Moss

Chigwell-born Moss signed schoolboy forms for Leyton Orient in 1968 as a striker, signing professional forms two years later.

He made his first-team debut for the O's in November 1970, scoring within 5 minutes.

He made just 4 more appearances though before moving to Colchester United in August 1972.

He played 17 times for the U`s, scoring 3 times, before leaving Layer Road in January 1973 for what was to be a long career in non-League football.

His first clubs in short spells were Kent Southern Premier Division sides Folkestone and Dover before returning to the London area with Wimbledon and Barnet.

In 1974, Moss signed for another Southern Premier Division outfit, Wealdstone.

One of the most popular players to have represented the club in its professional years, he originally signed from Barnet as a centre-forward, but withdrew to midfield where his energy and hard running were so effective.

Excellent in the air and scored many a goal from corners.

While at Wealdstone he was one of the six players sent-off in the infamous `Battle of Plough Lane` match in April 1976.

He made 265 appearances for the Stones, scoring 71 goals and was with them when they became one of the founder members of the Alliance Premier League.

However, in the summer of 1980, he moved back into the Southern League with Southern Division side Chelmsford City.

He went on to make 211 appearances for the Clarets before being released early in 1985, scoring 41 goals during his time at New Writtle Street.

He sadly passed away in August 2010 after a two-year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Vince Hilaire

Vince Hilaire began his career with Crystal Palace, making his league debut at Lincoln City in March 1977.

An England under-21 international, Hilaire was given his chance as a 17-year-old by Palace and was a member of their `Team of the Eighties`.

He went on to feature in 255 matches for them, scoring 29 goals and was one of the first black players to really establish himself in the Football League.

Popular with the fans because of his lightning pace and tight ball control, he was named the London club's player of the year in 1979 and 1980.

He moved to Portsmouth for £100,000 in November 1984 after playing a handful of games for Luton Town.

He was then an integral part of the promotion-winning side in 1987.

The following year he was transferred to Leeds United in a £190,000 deal but his career then wound down at Stoke City with former boss Alan Ball and finally, in the West Country with Exeter City.

The winger only stayed at St James’ Park until the end of the season though, signing for Southern League Premier Division side Waterlooville in the summer of 1992.

Hilaire played at Waterlooville for two seasons, alongside former Palace team-mate Billy Gilbert as joint-manager for a while, and by 2004 was working in match-day hospitality for Portsmouth Football Club and as a local radio pundit.