When footballer Joe Marston left in 1950 to become only the second Australian after World War II to play professional soccer in England, he started an odyssey unmatched in the history of Australian or English soccer.
For five extraordinary years between 1950 and 1955, playing for the English first division club Preston North End, in Lancashire, Marston was hero-worshipped. He was the first Australian to play in an FA Cup Final at Wembley, and became much better known in England than at home.
Despite his magnificent record in both countries, it was decades after his return to Sydney in 1955 before Marston received the national recognition he deserved: an MBE in 1980, induction into the Sport Australia and Football Federation Australia sporting halls of fame and, in 2002, the Australian Sports Medal. In 2012, he featured on an Australia Post stamp honouring notable Australian footballers of all codes. 
His ultimate recognition is the Joe Marston Medal, presented each year since 1999 to the outstanding player in the grand final of the National Soccer League, now the A-League. It and the Johnny Warren Medal, for the player of the season, are the most prestigious in Australian soccer. Marston was the late Warren's hero.
One honour that meant more to Marston than most was having the grandstand at Lambert Park, where he began his career with the Leichhardt-Annandale club, named after him in 2014. Marston first met his future wife, Edith Carter, in the grandstand. The Sydney Morning Herald soccer columnist Michael Cockerill wrote: "There's always been a regal air about Joe Marston, which is just as well. He's as close to footballing royalty as we've got. Think Clive Churchill, think Sir Donald Bradman, and you get an idea of where Marston sits in the pantheon."
James Edward Marston was born on   January 7, 1926, in working-class Leichhardt to Joseph, a hat maker, and his wife, Jessie. Joe and elder brother Ron attended Orange Grove Public School at Lilyfield, where Joe excelled at sport, especially swimming and soccer.
A tough, tireless, rangy and clever right fullback, Marston first played with Leichhardt-Annandale reserves in 1942. He made first grade the following year. Representative soccer for Sydney, NSW and Australia soon followed. At 21, he married Edith and made his international debut for Australia against South Africa. In that 1947 series, he played his first international with the Newcastle-born coal miner and goalscoring freak Reg Date, whom Marston rated as the best Australian he ever played with or against.
That debut gave Marston the first of 37 caps for Australia between 1947 and 1963. He was captain 24 times and twice toured New Zealand. A weekend surf lifesaver, Joe was on patrol on Christmas Day, 1949, when the offer came from Preston North End.
He was working in a paintbrush factory on a basic wage. Like all amateur sportspeople in Australia he was paid a pittance, as expenses. His match fee playing for Australia was only Â£5. The lure of being paid about Â£12 sterling a week as a professional appealed.
Arriving in Preston by train after their long flight to England, with overnight stopovers in Singapore, Karachi and Cairo, Joe and Edith were greeted by several hundred cheering fans waiting in the snow at the railway station. Neither had seen snow before.
Marston repaid the club's faith in him many times over, playing a key role in their fight to return to first division. After a season in reserves he was promoted to the first team as a centre-half to replace captain Harry Mattinson, who broke a leg in an FA Cup tie. Joe kept Mattinson's coveted No.5 shirt until Easter 1955, an extraordinary run of 197 consecutive league and cup matches.
The Australian played regularly in mud, snow and ice. Sometimes the smog was so thick he couldn't see the other end of the ground. He often trained in bare feet to harden and condition them for the icy playing conditions.
By 1953, the Marstons were homesick. Preston fans, fearing the loss of their champion Australian, paid the family's fare home for a holiday, on condition they return. Around this time, Preston rejected an extraordinary Â£80,000 offer from Arsenal for Marston.
Preston lost the 1954 FA Cup Final 3-2 to West Bromwich Albion, but Marston savoured the memories, including meeting the Queen Mother.
Marston was made Preston North End captain in 1955, the year he achieved his highest honour in England, playing for an English League selection against the Scottish League at Hampden Park.
At 28, the urge to return home became too strong, despite a fund started by Preston's lord mayor to keep him there. A band farewelled him at his final match with Waltzing Matilda and For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.
Arriving home without fanfare, Marston rejoined Leichhardt-Annandale, later renamed APIA-Leichhardt. He played again for NSW and Australia, but wasn't considered for the 1956 Olympic Games because he'd played as a professional.
Legendary for his toughness, he broke his nose in a clash with another hard man, Cessnock's rampaging centre-forward Jack Drinkwater. Marston played on. At the end of the game Joe pointed to his crooked nose and said to Drinkwater: "You broke it, Jack, now straighten it." Drinkwater obliged.
Socceroos who played with and against him, including goalkeepers Ron Lord and Bill Henderson, said Marston's greatest assets were his athleticism, fitness and uncanny reading of the play, honed by years of experience in the world's most demanding football league. After retiring as a player in 1964, Marston coached APIA, Western Suburbs, Auburn and Sydney Olympic. He twice coached Australia.
The lack of national recognition for so many years never bothered Marston. His Preston jersey became a prized piece of memorabilia, but he discarded his Australian jersey after getting paint on it while working around the house. He was recently named the fourth-greatest player in Preston North End's history.
In retirement, he and Edith lived at Umina, on the Central Coast.
Joe Marston is survived by his daughters Karen and Lynn, a granddaughter, a grandson and two great-grandsons. Edith died earlier this year.