Dave was born in Irvine on the 22nd of May 1956. His first club was Ipswich Town and from there he moved to division 1 team Derby County. He made his debut for the rams at Highbury in a 2-0 defeat but clocked up over 40 league games for them before moving to Brentford in a £30,000 deal in September 1980. He was almost ever present in their team in the next two seasons, then came the disastrous season of 82/83. Dave suffered from a persistent back injury and was in dispute with the club, his only football that season came in a loan spell at Happy Valley, Hong Kong.
Rescue came in the shape of Bob Stokoe and Dave signed for Carlisle United in August 1982 with Trevor Swinburne making the opposite journey to Griffin Park. His debt came on August the 27th with a 0-0 home draw against Cambridge. Dave soon showed that Stokoe had made an astute signing. In the 83/84 season he played 42 league and 4 cup games including 20 clean sheets and an amazing run of 6 consecutive clean sheets between the 4th of February and March 17th 84. This run saw the blues climb the table as they won all their home games and beat Portsmouth (1-0) and drew with eventual div 2 champions Chelsea 0-0 away from home. The low point of the season came on the 23rd of April with the blues going down 5-1 to Newcastle in front of 33,386 fans. This all but wrote off the promotion challenge but Carlisle still finished in a credible 7th place.
The next season 84/85 was less successful. Dave played 42 league games and 4 cup games but this time there was only 11 clean sheets and United finished in 17th spot. Ironically one of the two games he missed that season was the game against Man City that was televised on 'Match of the Day', one of very few appearances on the box through these years by Carlisle. The blues won the game 3-1 with John Blott between the sticks as Dave had a broken finger. John also deputised in the next game a 2-1 win away at Fulham and then spent the rest of his Carlisle career in the reserves. The low point of the season had to be Dave's last game for us when beaten 5-2 by Oldham.
In the summer of 85 Pop Robson came in as manager and Dave decided to ask for a transfer and moved to Hibernian as second keeper to Alan Rough. From Hibs he was given a loan to Newcastle and played with them in the first division until the end of the season. The next two seasons saw him have spells first at Hamilton, then at Dunfermline. The highlight with those clubs must be the Rangers games. In 1987 he was in goal for Hamilton when they beat Rangers 1-0 away knocking them out of the Scottish Cup. The following season Dave lined up with Dunfermline to face Rangers and this time the score was was 2-0, two clean sheets in two consecutive seasons, mighty Rangers must have been relieved he was back playing at Carlisle the following season!
Dave rejoined the blues on loan from Dunfermline, taking over from Mark Prudhoe. He made his debut on the 15th of October in a home game against Torquay a 2-1 win, United's fist win of the season. The loan covered 9 league games and crucially 3 cup games which were all wins. the last game of the loan was the 2nd round F.A. Cup match against Scarborough, a 1-0 win which set us up for the 3rd round glamour tie against Liverpool. Dave left but rejoined on a permanent deal costing £10.000, returning on the 2nd of January, just in time to be between the sticks for the Liverpool game. Liverpool won the tie 3-0 but the game was closer than the result suggests, with the Cumbrians pushing the reds all the way. A further 25 league games completed the season.
The 89/90 season saw Carlisle push for promotion. Dave played 35 league and 4 cups games and things were looking good for the blues until a disastrous run at the end of the season saw them fall away to eighth place. Defensive errors contributed to a run of 6 straight defeats , whilst off the field Dave's mother had died and he saw the chance of playing football back in his native Scotland. His last appearance for United was the 1-0 home win against Doncaster Rovers leaving Carlisle's number 1 slot to Kevin Rose.
Dave first moved to Kilmarnock, gaining Carlisle a £20,000 fee, where he helped seal them promotion to division 1. His final club was to be Rangers where he was second keeper to Andy Goram.
Dave still lives and works in Scotland.
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