Mike Pinner

Before going to Cambridge University, goalkeeper Mike Pinner was educated at Boston Grammar school and made his senior football début for Notts County reserves at the age of 14. At Cambridge he went on to became a record five-time Blue between 1952-55 and captained the team in his final year. He was also the secretary of the Cambridge University Football Club.

While training to be a solicitor Mike played football for Boston United, Pegasus and several Football League teams who called on him when they had a goalkeeping crisis. He had several offers to turn professional at an early stage of his career but as he later said: “The maximum wage for a footballer in the early fifties was £12 a week - there was no maximum in the legal profession”. He won the first of his 52 England amateur caps against Wales in 1954 and was the number one choice for the 1956 Olympics. He traveled to Melbourne but injured his wrist shortly before the opening game and did not take any further part.

He toured Nigeria and Ghana with the FA XI in 1958 and two years later in Rome he got to make his Olympic début when he played in all three Great Britain group matches including the 2-2 draw with Italy who included players like Giovanni Trapattoni, manager of the Republic of Ireland national team 2008-13, and Gianni Rivera, both from the Italian under-21 squad. A London solicitor, he played four games for Manchester United in 1961 when regular goalkeeper Harry Gregg was injured. Pinner was playing for Queens Park Rangers and also doing National Service in the RAF at the time. Later that year he got a similar call from Chelsea to stand in when Peter Bonetti was injured.

Pinner was the last amateur to play in the top flight of English football. Having played two games in the qualifying tournament for the 1964 Olympics he turned semi-professional with Leyton Orient at the age of 29 in 1963 and consequently never went to his third Olympics. He played 113 League games for seven clubs and ended his career at Belfast Distillery nearly 20 years after making his début as a 14-year-old.