Sam Gillam
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Samuel Gladstone Gillam | ||
| Date of birth | 1868 | ||
| Place of birth | Swindon, England | ||
| Date of death | 13 October 1938 | ||
| Place of death | Chard, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1884–1886 | Wrexham Lever | ||
| 1886–1888 | Wrexham Olympic | ||
| 1888 | Bolton Wanderers | 2 | (0) |
| 1888–1889 | Wrexham | ||
| 1889–1890 | Shrewsbury Town | ||
| 1890 | Chirk | ||
| 1890–1893 | London Welsh | ||
| 1893–189? | Clapton | ||
| 189?–189? | Brighton Athletic | ||
| 1898–1904 | West Hampstead | ||
| National team | |||
| 1889–1894 | Wales | 5 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Samuel Gladstone "Sam" Gillam (1868 – 13 October 1938) was a Wales international football goalkeeper, who played for various clubs in England and Wales in the 1880s and 1890s, including a brief career in the Football League with Bolton Wanderers. He was the first player to come on as a substitute in international football.
Gillam was born in Swindon, Wiltshire but started his football career in Wrexham in north Wales when he joined Wrexham Lever as a teenager. After two years, he moved to the Wrexham Olympic for two years, before another, temporary move to England.
For the start of the inaugural Football League season, Gillam had agreed to join Everton but he "failed to turn up at the last minute" for Everton's first pre-season friendly. He subsequently joined Bolton Wanderers for whom he only made two appearances; ironically, his debut for Bolton came at Everton on 5 November. The match report in The Liverpool Mercury said "The visitors brought a strong eleven including Gillan (sic) who was to have kept goal for the home club this season." Another match report said that Gillam "defended his charge in marvellous fashion, accounting for shot after shot in a style that brought forth hearty cheers"; despite his efforts, Everton won the match 2–1. His only other Football League appearance came in a 5–2 defeat at home to Preston North End, who were to go through the season undefeated.
By the end of the year, he had returned to Wrexham. On 15 April 1889, Wales were playing their British Home Championship match against Scotland at the Racecourse Ground. Wrexham; the regular goalkeeper, Jim Trainer, failed to turn up for the match, as Preston North End refused to release him. The kick-off was delayed while a replacement was sought; eventually the match got underway with local amateur player Alf Pugh in goal, before Gillam arrived some twenty minutes into the match to take over. Neither 'keeper conceded a goal and the match ended 0–0; this was the first time in 14 matches between the countries that the Scots had failed to defeat the Welsh, and only the second international match in which neither team had managed to score, the first being the very first officially recognised international match, between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872. This was also the first use of a substitute in international football.
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