Origins: James Trafford

My first memory of playing football was when was in play group with my best friend still to this day, Spencer.

We were just kicking the ball and knocking all the toys off, and my mum worked there so she told me off!

This was all where we lived back home up north, on our family farm in Cumbria.

Growing up, we didn't have Wi-Fi until I was about maybe nine or ten and we didn't really watch television, so all we knew was farming and football.

Whether it was playing with my sister, my cousins or my mum or my dad, I was always playing football. I would just shoot at my mum, or be kicking the ball against the side of the shed and that’s where it started really.

Then I remember, on a Saturday morning, I used to go to football training at Cockermouth School with Rolf Cooley when I was about seven.

It was two pounds for two hours and Rolf put on a session and I really enjoyed it. As every kid does, I just loved playing football.

When you were eight, you could join the Cockermouth U9 team and I ended up playing a year up just through coincidence really.

Mike Brelsford was our coach and I remember it was just pretty informal, everyone used to run around and have fun. We weren't the best team, but we weren’t the worst either.

It’s funny because I never used to play away games at first, I didn't like it because the Maryport coach used to shout at me on the side: ‘you've never played away games’.

I remember one day Mike said to my mum: 'Just put his boots in the car, take him to Cleator Moor and see if he wants to play'.

I played the game and since then, I played in all the away games and then I was scouted by Carlisle and asked to go and trial with them.

I was nine when I went to Carlisle, and I probably wasn’t going to get signed initially but then the goalie wasn't there once so I went in and from then on I was a goalie. I got signed and it’s gone from there.

If it wasn’t for football, I'd have been a farmer and gone down the same route as more or less everyone in the family.

So yeah, I'd have been on the farm with my dad and my mum, just farming.

With England, I remember I went on my first goalie camp first when I was about 12 and then I went on one the year after.

At U15 level. I was in the first set of camps and then missed the others but I was always wishing I did go and I was really willing to go.

My first call up to a squad was in the February of the U16 season when I got called up to play Denmark, Spain and Scotland.

And that was brilliant. I can remember it was really cold at St. George's Park and my family were there, so it was amazing.

From there, apart from when I was injured, I've been in every camp, every international window through the age groups and I have so many memories from it with the lads, many of which I’ve grown up with really.

Click here to read article