“Thorpey and Batts were both decent players at that level. They were big lads, you needed the height or size at that time. You didn’t get the protection you get today and you had to go out with that horribleness and anger in you. When I was at Everton I was under a coach called John Hurst who played for them in the sixties and he was horrible at times. Not sure he would get away with the treatment we received back then! My school year was the last of the old YTS, we didn’t get any of that mollycoddling. If we were losing, Hursty would tell me to get off my feet and smash someone, get a booking to try and get the team going again.
“We played open age football from a young age, this gave us a great grounding for lower league football, something today the kids don’t have. That upbringing suited me in Division Three, if someone wanted a battle then great, I was up for that. I’d fight anyone, not a punch up but a proper football scrap.”
Sadly, the 19-year old didn’t get a chance to prove his worth beyond his injury. He was out from September until November and when he returned, things didn’t go well.
“I came back from injury and got 20 minutes against Brighton in November in a 2-2 draw. I’d played a few reserve games, I was fit and ready to get back into the side, but I wasn’t getting picked. John Reames wouldn’t pick me, so I went to see him, told him I was ready and fit but he just wouldn’t play me. I got a bit frustrated, I thought I was good enough to play, I’d done alright and I thought it was my time. I travelled down to Luton in the cup game and didn’t get on, but he put Craig Stones on. Stonesy was a nice kid, but a year earlier I’d been in training squads with Steven Gerrard, Wes Brown and Jonathan Woodgate and the likes and yet Stonesy played 30 or 40 games. Maybe this was a financial decision.”
After showing so much promise, enough for Deranged Ferret to label him a ‘very good midfielder’ who turned in some ‘excellent performances’ before his injury, the end was a huge anti-climax for Imps’ fans. For David, it went a lot further than that.
“In the end I just left, that was it. I was told I wasn’t wanted the day before my birthday, 19 years ago. I went under a bit of a cloud and if I’m honest, the whole experience made me disillusioned with football. It wasn’t just the way I left, I’d been on the training ground listening to senior pro’s saying ‘eight months to go, ‘six months to go’. What they meant was that they had that time to go until 30th June. I asked why and they said that was when their contracts were up, that was the date they didn’t know if they would still have a job and could pay their mortgage. I’d wanted to be a footballer so bad, but that hit me hard. It had never been about money, but I couldn’t live with that uncertainty.”
Coming out of the pro game hurt the youngster, but he found some solace in a future Imps hero.
“I was insured, I didn’t have any money, so I took my insurance and that was that. Once you’ve taken that you can’t play in the top four divisions again, so my career was over just like that. Keith Alexander rang me and asked me to go and play for him at Ilkeston, so I went off and played with him there. I earned more money playing for them than I had at Lincoln! I got a job, trained to be an accountant, started buying a lot of property with my old team-mate Danny Cadamarteri. I later set up a property company with two other directors and that was that. In all honesty I wouldn’t change anything, we have a good business, earn good money and I’ve got no regrets about how things turned out.”
Despite the success he enjoys in his current career, David admits it wasn’t always easy to put his playing days behind him.
“There were some dark days in my twenties, playing non-league football knowing I could have done so much better. I knew I was under achieving, but it came down to money in the end. I’d always wanted to play football, but I couldn’t do it for £13k a year. My best memories were at Everton and playing for England with Wes Brown, Michael Owen and Michael Ball. We won a the Nordics tournament with them and won the FA Youth Cup at Everton as well, Danny played, Franny Jeffers, Leon Osman, Richard Dunne and lads like that.”
“They were good times. I went to Italy in a tournament and played against Roman Riquelme, I learned a bit from that. He would get the ball from his right full back, you’re always told as a midfielder to receive the ball side on and if you can’t, shield the ball. Riquelme didn’t do that, he squared me up. I came to close him down and he just drifted past me, carried the ball 50 yards. I thought to myself ‘shit, what happened there’, nobody ever does that, you’re too scared of getting caught out. He did it again and again, so after the games we would watch various videos where you would realise you needed to close players down like a full back would against a winger.”
He used that experience to improve his own game, but it didn’t sit well at Sincil Bank.
“The penny dropped and at Everton I used to want the ball in that position and looked to emulate that. When I got to Lincoln, I’d scream to Bimmo to give me the ball in the middle of the park and I could just drift past players. John Reames didn’t want the ball being delivered into that area, he wanted it played into the front man and everyone to play off them. That wasn’t Batts game either, he wanted it into his feet so he could hold up play, he had a low centre of gravity and could play effectively that way.”
“We had a player called Paul Miller, decent pro, but he wasn’t the same sort of player as I was. He didn’t have pace and didn’t want to beat players, he just picked up the pieces. He rarely passed forwards, Batts used to get frustrated with this style of play! Batts wanted little ones around the corners, he was such a strong player. Me and Batts were getting a good relationship on the pitch early doors. We’d both come from a decent level, but we just didn’t get enough game time.”
Despite the promise, those handful of appearances are the sum total of David Poppleton’s professional football career, but to hear him talk accurately about players, opponents and dates makes you realise it is a source of immense pride. His story is one of ‘if only’, if only we’d been managed differently at the time, if only his rotten agent hadn’t been in it for himself. If only he hadn’t got injured against Torquay.
Still, as much as there’s passion for the game, there’s also no sense of regret when chatting to him either. There’s no indication that he lives in the past, wishing he could go back. he’s a successful businessman now, someone who has succeeded in the walk of life he eventually chose and is happy with that. To hear him recall his Lincoln days is a joy, because he does so without resentment or anger.
“I’m happy with what I do now and I suppose I’m just one of football’s forgotten men, but I enjoyed my time at Sincil Bank because it gave me a chance to be a professional footballer. I’m proud that I represented the club and have memories that stick with me to this day.”
Thanks to David for taking the time to chat to me and for the pictures he’s provided to go with the article. He can be found on Twitter @DavidPoppleton, although is account is protected so if you want to wish him happy birthday, you can do so by tagging me in the message @staceywestblog and I’ll see he sees them.
We missed a great opportunity with David Poppleton. I recall he looked a quality prospect but the management never seemed to realise at the time just how good he was.
Nice article. I always wondered what happened to him. I thought he was pretty decent at the time and he could have been a good player for us. We seemed to get a few decent players on loan/short contracts from big clubs, who then seemingly never made the grade – David Wilson (Man Utd), Anthony Henry (West Ham) and Gary Powell (Everton) spring to mind.
I really liked Davd Poppleton as a player… he had a lot of technical ability…. you have to think he would have blossomed under the Cowleys…
That he would. Technically, a very good player indeed