James Paterson played in four of the club’s Reserve team fixtures during the 1897-98 season when his education responsibilities permitted. He was studying science at Taunton’s in Southampton and had figured in none of the 1898-99 fixtures, before being called in to fill in at full back in the last Western League fixture of the season at The Dell against Swindon Town in a 3-2 win.

That single first team outing would be his last ever game in a Saints shirt as he finished his studies and then  joined the staff at Taunton’s, until 1905 when he became a Master of Physics and Chemistry at the Pupil teachers’ school in Southampton. In 1906 he gained his Bachelor of Science degree at the London University and subsequently found a position at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School (HABS) in Hampstead. He remained there for the rest of his career while living in the Hendon area.