He became a goalkeeper by accident, almost lost his position at one of his early clubs to a local garbage collector and went on to work for Manchester United. But it was the transition to senior coaching that most tested Armadale boss Lee Bamber.

Now into his second season with the south-western corridor club, Bamber has embraced future coaching concepts without discarding the entire contents of his old school catalogue. After such a hard slog, he has no intention of denying himself the knowledge that came with years of battling to make it as a goalkeeper.

He recently completed his Football Federation Australia C Licence at a course conducted by Football West technical director Cris Ola and has taken on board new approaches to coaching but with one eye on the past.

“I never forget the old school but I’m always looking to learn new stuff,” Bamber told Beyond 90. “I like to throw in a curve ball during training and see how the players react because that’s what happens in games. You have to adapt.”

Born in the north-west England town of Preston, Bamber started out as a winger before a groin injury appeared to have ended his career. Frustrated at having lost “that yard of pace, the x-factor” he was consigned to teenage retirement until a friend asked him to play in goal for a local pub team. By his own admission, his performances in the first season were more of a routine nature than stand-out calibre.

“Then in the second season they wanted to get the local dustbin man in because they said he was a better goalkeeper than me,” Bamber said. “In the end, they persevered with me and I did start to get better and I filled out a little bit. This was division six of the Lancashire Evening Post Sunday League. On these park pitches, full of mud, I learnt a lot. I learnt to look after myself and I learnt a bit about the trade.”

After climbing through the ranks of Sunday football, he eventually fell under the wing of former Wigan goalkeeper John Brown, whose influence and work ethic paid dividends when Bamber joined Preston North End.

Although he played numerous reserve team matches, he made only one Football League appearance when he came on during a 2-2 draw away to Mansfield after goalkeeper Kelham O’Hanlon was sent off. “It was already 2-2 and I kept a clean sheet. (Then Preston assistant manager) Gary Peters always said to me I was the only goalkeeper to play in the Football League and not concede a goal,” Bamber said.

He might not have lasted long at the top as a player but he would later spend almost 10 years as a goalkeeper coach with Preston as the club progressed from the lower rungs of English football into the second-tier Championship.

Then when family commitments started to take precedence, he was finally drawn away from Preston and goalkeeper coaching – although not for long. “I had about 10 years coaching at Preston and saw the centre of excellence develop from its infancy,” he said. “They had some good managers along the way with Gary Peters, David Moyes, Craig Brown and Billy Davies and I was lucky enough to see them all coach.

“Then it got so much that I was missing out on my kids a little bit. But I’d only been left a week or so and I had a phone call from someone wanting to set up an academy in Preston. “It was for Man United. You don’t get chances like that come along every day so I said yes.”

Bamber worked for around 18 months in Manchester United’s Preston-based satellite goalkeeper academy before he immigrated to Perth with his wife and family. Inglewood United was first stop and just days after his arrival he was appointed goalkeeper coach. He later became a senior assistant coach and when Bobby Despotovski was unable to commit to head duties due to overseas commitments, Bamber was thrown into the deep end.

He described the transition from goalkeeper coaching to the head position as one of the most difficult challenges of his career. “I never thought I’d be a senior coach and when I got the opportunity at Inglewood, I must admit it was a bit scary,” he said. “We had a bunch of lads who’d been around a

while and they’d had Bobby and Alan Vest looking after them. All of a sudden there was a new face on the block.”

But with Kevin Brophy by his side, and occasionally turning back to Vest to influence training sessions, Bamber thrived before returning to goalkeeper duties with Perth Glory in the Hyundai A-League.

He worked part time with Glory on its way to a finals appearance under Dave Mitchell’s guidance but was unable to continue when Ian Ferguson took over two years ago. “When Fergie took over he wanted someone fulltime and something had to give,” Bamber said.

I couldn’t carry on doing what I was doing. I’d been using my work holidays to go on away games and my holidays had run out. Glory made me an offer but it wasn’t quite for me.”

Bamber returned to the All Flags State Premier League last season when he took on the Armadale job. Again with Brophy as his assistant, he steered Armadale to safety and this year is aiming to build on that solid platform. “We’ve got a great set up down at Armadale, a real honest and professional club, and it is great to work with people with the passion, experience and commercial nous of Tony Greipl and John O’Gorman.”

And Bamber’s final take on the future ? “You never stop learning in this game. You’ve got to be well read and you’ve always got to be looking to see what other people are doing,” he said.