Vincent Lee Bartram (born 7 August 1968) is an English football coach and former 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 ...

. As a player he was a

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 ...

. As a player, he notably played in the

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 ...

for

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, where he was understudy to

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country's ...

throughout the majority of his time at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

. He also played in the

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 Engla ...

for

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 ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

and Gillingham.

Playing career

Born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, Bartram attended Hagley RC High School. His first professional club was

who in 1985 signed him from a non-league team. Bartram made his first team debut on 23 August 1986 in a 2–1 home defeat to

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

, which marked the club's first-ever game in the fourth tier of English football. However, this proved his only Wolves league outing until April 1991 as the club brought in Mark Kendall, and later

Mike Stowell Michael Stowell (born 19 April 1965) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is now first team coach and goalkeeping coach at Leicester City. As a player, he spent twenty years as a professional, eleven of w ...

, of whom were both virtual ever-presents at the club. Instead, Bartram had loan spells with

and

, before finally leaving Molineux for

in July 1991 for £35,000. He played 132 league games for Bournemouth before moving to

for £250,000 in 1994. At Arsenal he was

's understudy, and played just 11 league games in four seasons (all in 1994–95). To gain playing time, he spent 12 games on loan with

in late 1997. He signed for Gillingham on loan in March 1998 before the move was made permanent in the summer of 1998. He firmly established himself as the first-choice goalkeeper at

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has ...

and helped them to the Division Two play-off final in his first full season, where they lost out to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

on penalties. The following season saw them go one step further as they beat

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

in the play-off final to reach the second tier for the first time in the club's history. In total, he made over 200 appearances for the Gills, before his retirement from the game in February 2004 due to a wrist injury. The injury was caused by a collision with the opposition goalkeeper,

Tony Warner Anthony Randolph Warner (born 11 May 1974) is a football coach and former professional footballer who is the goalkeeping coach at Reading. Warner notably played in the Premier League for Fulham, having also being contracted to Liverpool and Hul ...

, who had come upfield to try and score a goal from a last-minute

corner Corner may refer to: People *Corner (surname) *House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places *Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States *Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia *Corner River, a tributary of ...

Coaching career

Bartram is now a Level 3 FA Coach and spent 12 and half years at the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

with responsibility for the development of goalkeepers. Prior to this he held coaching roles at

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and

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 ...

Personal life

Bartram is married to Tracy, a former international

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player and the couple have two sons, Heath and Miles. Bartram also worked in the role of a summariser for

BBC Radio Kent BBC Radio Kent is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Kent. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Great Hall in Tunbridge Wells. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

Honours

Gillingham * Football League Second Division Playoffs:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartram, Vince 1968 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English footballers Association football goalkeepers Premier League players English Football League players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Arsenal F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Southampton F.C. non-playing staff