James Trainer (7 January 1863 in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

– 5 August 1915 in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

, England) was a Welsh

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. He was named the best

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

of the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

several years in a row starting with the initial season of 1888–89, when he was part of the unbeaten

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

team nicknamed " The Invincibles".''Fußball-Weltzeitschrift'' No. 10, Jan/Feb 1988.

Football career

James Trainer, a time–served coachbuilder played his first senior match for a Wrexham club and before long had established a reputation as an excellent goalkeeper. He left the 'Robins' under a cloud, following a particularly rough

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie against

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

in December 1883. He was alleged to have insulted the referee and

the FA The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and ...

banned Wrexham from the competition and reported Trainer's offence to the

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; cy, Cymdeithas Bêl-droed Cymru) is the Governing bodies of sports in Wales, governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Wales national football team, Welsh national foo ...

. After a spell with

Great Lever Great Lever is a suburb of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is south of Bolton town centre and the same distance north of Farnworth. The district is served by frequent buses running to Bolton town centre, Farnwo ...

, he joined

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in 1884. He went on to appear in a number of pre–League games for the Wanderers and his form earned him international recognition when he played for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

against Scotland in 1887. Trainer enjoyed his greatest success at Preston North End as a member of the 'Invincibles'. Curiously he had impressed North End while playing for Bolton at

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End. Deepdale is "widely recognised as being the oldest 'continuously used' football stadium in the world, though this is contested". History ...

, the home of Preston North End, in a match in which he let in 12 goals. He first appeared for North End in August 1887 on a short tour of Scotland. Although he was on the losing side against Hibernian, it was another eight months before he tasted defeat again. Trainer sharpened up his catching ability by playing for the club's baseball team and in North End's pre–League days was known to 'wear a mackintosh' and 'shelter under an umbrella' during a game. Jimmy Trainer made his League debut on 8 September 1888 in goal for Preston North End against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

at Deepdale. Preston won 5–2. Jimmy Trainer played 20 of Preston' 22 League Championship matches and as a goalkeeper played in a Preston North End defence that achieved 12 clean-sheets and restricted the opposition to one–League–goal–in–a–match on three separate occasions. Jimmy Trainer assisted Preston North End to be 1888–89 League Champions. Preston North End went onto win the 1889 FA Cup and complete the first–ever double. However, in 1888 Preston practiced what is common practive now. The No:2 goalkeeper played in FA Cup ties and so Trainer did not play in the 1889 FA Cup campaign. Between 1888 and 1897 Trainer played in 253 games for Preston, and after retiring he became landlord of the Lamb Hotel in Preston. He later moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where his business failed. He died in poverty in 1915.

Professional Baseball

In 1890 Trainer played first base professionally

Preston North End Baseball Club Preston North End Baseball Club were a short lived English professional baseball club, who played their home games at Deepdale, competing for the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain. Preston North End Baseball Club Limited were for ...

in the National League of Baseball of Great Britain.

Honours

;

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most ...

winners: 1883

References

External links

Biography on Welsh Biography Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trainer, James Wales international footballers Welsh footballers Wrexham A.F.C. players Great Lever F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players English Football League players Association football goalkeepers Footballers from Wrexham 1863 births 1915 deaths English Football League representative players Wrexham Victoria F.C. players Welsh baseball players