With their respective planned opponents involved in the FA Cup, City and Southampton hastily arranged a friendly for 23 January 1932 which the Grecians won 2-0. Playing on the left-wing Johnny Arnold would have been an object of curiosity having played test cricket for England against New Zealand the previous summer.

An opening bat who went on to score nearly 22,000 runs in first-class cricket, the Oxford-born Johnny had made his debut for Hampshire in 1929. A notable amateur footballer with Oxford City, and needing to reside in Hampshire throughout the year to properly qualify for the county, he had already thrown in his lot with Southampton then in the charge of former Exeter City manager Arthur Chadwick. Playing on the left-wing Johnny was to make 110 league appearances (46 goals) for the Saints before moving to Fulham early in 1933.

Little did those who saw him at St James' Park know that, within months of arriving at Craven Cottage, Johnny was to line up for England against Scotland at Hampden Park to become a somewhat unlikely and ultimately little-remembered dual international. As with his England cricket career, the appearance in April 1933 proved to be the sum of Johnny's sole international career. But he proved to be an exceptionally durable sporting all-rounder continuing with Fulham until 1939 and Hampshire to 1950. He later became a first-class cricket umpire.

Johnny Arnold died in Sputhampton at the age of seventy-six in 1984. Intriguingly he was one of a handful of 1930s England cricketers to feature on the footballing field of play against the Grecians alongside the more illustrious Les Ames (Clapton Orient), Wally Hammond (Bristol Rovers) and Patsy Hendren (Brentford).