James William Bolton (born 13 August 1994) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for St Mirren.

Career

Non-league

Born in

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Stafford (borough), ...

, Bolton spent seven years as a youth player at

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. He then joined

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

at the age of sixteen. On 23 August 2012, Bolton and teammate André da Costa were loaned to

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

of the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

for a month. The deal was extended until the new year, and he made 14 total appearances, scoring the equaliser in a 2–1 home win over Hinckley United on 29 September. Bolton was sent out again in December 2012 to Stafford Rangers, signing for a month to the

Northern Premier League Premier Division The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division ...

club. He then joined

F.C. Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

on loan on 28 March, for the rest of the season. He scored three goals in seven games for the Shaymen, all within seven days in mid-April. In 2013–14, Bolton made ten

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

appearances for Macclesfield before being loaned back to Halifax in the same league on 30 January, for the second half of the season. On 2 July 2014, the deal was made permanent for an undisclosed contract length. After being part of the Halifax squad which won the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

but were also relegated from the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

, he joined

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on a three-year deal in May 2016.

Shrewsbury Town

After one season at Gateshead, Bolton joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

in July 2017 for an undisclosed fee, signing a two-year deal. He made his

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 ...

debut on 5 August in a 1−0 home victory over

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

. On 29 August, Bolton was sent off for a foul on Jodi Jones as Shrewsbury won 3–2 at

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

. He scored his first goal for the Shrews on 27 January 2018, the only one of a win away to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. Bolton started in the EFL Trophy final and League One play-off final, which his team lost to Lincoln City and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

respectively at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. In the 2018–19

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 ...

third round replay away to his childhood club Stoke, Bolton scored Shrewsbury's first goal as they overturned a 0–2 deficit in the last 19 minutes to win 3–2. He was on target again in the next round's replay at

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, albeit in a 3–2 loss on 5 February.

Portsmouth

On 7 June 2019, Bolton signed for fellow League One team

on a free transfer on a three-year deal after turning down an improved contract. He made his debut on 3 August on his return to the

New Meadow New Meadow, also known as Montgomery Waters Meadow for sponsorship purposes, is a stadium situated on the southern outskirts of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, between the districts of Meole Brace and Sutton Farm, and close to the A5 road (Great Britain) ...

, as a 53rd-minute substitute for

Anton Walkes Anton Charles Walkes (8 February 1997 – 19 January 2023) was an English professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder. Walkes began his club career with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, making one appearance for the c ...

in a 1–0 loss to Shrewsbury. Bolton scored his first goal for Pompey on 4 January 2020, opening a 2–1 win at

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

in the third round of the FA Cup. On 1 February, he recorded a first league goal in a 2–0 victory over

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

Plymouth Argyle

On 24 June 2021, Bolton signed for

side

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

on a two-year deal for an undisclosed fee. He made just eight appearances in all competitions across the 2022–23 season as Argyle won promotion from League One as Champions, being released at the end of the season.

St Mirren

Bolton signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club St Mirren in July 2023.

Personal life

On 21 March 2020, it was reported that Bolton and three Portsmouth teammates had tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the 2020 pandemic. None were reported to be seriously ill.

Career statistics

Honours

Shrewsbury Town *

runner-up: 2017–18 Portsmouth *EFL Trophy runner-up: 2019–20 Plymouth Argyle *

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

*EFL Trophy runner-up:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton, James 1994 births Living people People from Stone, Staffordshire English men's footballers Men's association football defenders English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players Macclesfield Town F.C. players Workington A.F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players FC Halifax Town players Gateshead F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Footballers from Staffordshire St Mirren F.C. players