68 Dave Redfern

Position : Goalkeeper

Played : 1984-5 to 1987-88 (reserves only in final season )

Appearances : 87

Goals : 0

Dave arrived from Sheffield Wednesday, initially on loan, to replace Paul Malcolm and made his League debut for Dale. He was a notable improvement and he signed for Dale permanently in the summer of 1985. The original fee was £15,000 but partway through the instalments Dale pleaded poverty and Wednesday waived the rest rather than take Dave back.



He was a big bear of a guy but quite agile with the frustrating habit of nearly saving every penalty he faced. Dave’s weakness was a suspect temperament. He made cock-ups in big games against Manchester United in the FA Cup and Watford in the League Cup the following season. His was always the first head to go down in adversity and a 2-0 deficit was always likely to become 5-0 with Dave in the nets. It was during one of those 5-0s away at Northampton that Dave broke a finger which ended his first team career as his understudy Keith Welch started the next game and a run of appearances that lasted until he was sent off in 1991. Apart from a half in a friendly Dave didn’t play for the first team again. He was still contracted for the 1987-88 season and when the financial crisis struck there was speculation that Dave would have to be used in an outfield role but perhaps fortunately that never happened. He played 3 games on loan to Wigan that season.



Dave moved on to Gainsborough Trinity but a year later returned to League football with Stockport and, while never an automatic choice, made 48 appearances over four seasons. He later played for Buxton and Emley.