Joe "Joseph" Bainbridge was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. He spent ten years at Blackpool

Blackpool F.C.

Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

 in the 1900s, making over 100 Football League appearances for the club. He played as a centre-forward.

Blackpool

Bainbridge made his debut for Blackpool on 2 January 1911, in a 1–1 draw with Gainsborough Trinity

Gainsborough Trinity F.C.

Gainsborough Trinity Football Club are an English football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.Between 1896 and 1912 they were members of the Football League. They are currently in the Conference North, and play their home matches at The Northolme, which has a capacity of 4,304...

 at Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...

. He went on to make a further five appearances in the 1910–11 season, scoring once (in his second appearance, a 3–1 victory at Stockport County

Stockport County F.C.

Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly afterwards merging with Heaton Norris F.C., and adopted the current name on 24 May 1890 on the creation of the County Borough of Stockport...

).

In the 1911–12 campaign, Bainbridge made ten league appearances. He didn't find the net in the league, but he did score in an FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 first-round (second replay) victory over Crewe Alexandra

Crewe Alexandra F.C.

Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional football club based in Crewe, Cheshire. Nicknamed The Railwaymen due to the town's links with the rail industry, they currently play in Football League Two, the fourth tier of English football, and are based at the Alexandra Stadium.The club...

.

Bainbridge scored nine league goals in 1912–13, his third season with Blackpool, before being moved into a midfield

Midfield

Midfield is the part of a sports pitch that lies approximately in the center. It is a term most commonly associated with football to refer to the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region, but it can be used in field hockey to describe the same area, or in...

 role in 1913–14. After his change of position, he did not score again until the final game of the following 1914–15 term — the winner at Fulham

Fulham F.C.

Fulham Football Club is a professional English Premier League club based in southwest London Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they play in the Premier League, their 11th current season...

 on 24 April 1915.

In 1919–20, after four inter-war

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 seasons, new Seasiders manager Bill Norman

Bill Norman (football manager)

William "Bill" Norman was an English football manager.Between 1918 and 1923, he was in charge of Blackpool, who became one of a growing number of clubs to appoint a full-time manager. Before that point, the team selection had been the responsibility of a committee comprising directors, the captain,...

 gave only one start to Bainbridge, at left-back as deputy to Horace Fairhurst

Horace Fairhurst

Horace Fairhurst was an English professional football player. He played as a defender.After playing for Darwen for a number of years, Fairhurst joined fellow Lancashire club Blackpool in May 1919 after previously playing for them during the 1916-17 and 1917-18 World War I wartime...

. Blackpool lost the game, at South Shields

South Shields F.C.

South Shields F.C. are a football club based in South Shields, England. They have a long and complicated history, with three distinct incarnations taking the name...

, 0–6.

He was given two starts the following season, 1920–21, his final one with the club. The latter came in a 3–1 defeat at Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

on 15 January 1921.