Ron Blackman, a member of Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1956/57 Third Division South championship-winning squad, died earlier this week, aged 90.
The centre forward joined the Blues from Nottingham Forest in July 1955 and scored 12 goals in 28 games - including a debut goal in a 5-1 win over Reading at his old stomping ground Elm Park - before moving on to non-league Tonbridge in June 1958.
He netted four goals in 12 games as Ramsey’s team picked up the first of their three league titles.
Portsmouth-born Blackman started his career with non-league Gosport Borough before moving on to Reading in 1947 and it was with the Royals he enjoyed the most successful spell of his career.
Blackman scored 158 league goals in 218 games, 39 in the 1951/52 Division Three South campaign, both still Reading club records, before joining Forest in June 1954. A shoulder injury ended his career while with Tonbridge.
Following his retirement he worked as a telephone engineer and lived in Fareham. He died on Tuesday, leaving a wife, Iris, and daughter, Sue.