Danny Butterfield was an experienced defender who played three seasons with Exeter City  between 2013 and 2016 during which time he coached the club’s under-21 team. He then moved into coaching at Southampton and, later, with Paul Tisdale at MK Dons. 

Growing up in Lincolnshire Danny joined Grimsby Town as a youngster and, after 124 league appearances, moved to Crystal Palace in 2002 where he was to play 232 league games in an eight-year career. He then had three years at Southampton where he appeared in around forty league games before making a single league appearance for Carlisle United in August 2013. Over the years Danny had also played for Charlton and Bolton on loan. 

As of signing for Exeter City in September 2013 Danny, at the age of thirty-three, had played well over 400 league games. In his first season at City he played 29 league games, mainly at right-back, followed by 33 in all competitions in 2014/15. Danny was subsequently appointed player-coach in May 2015 taking charge of the club’s Premier League Under-21 Cup campaign. He still featured in the first-team appearing fifteen times in 2015/16.

Danny left Exeter City in September in 2016 to become assistant manager of Southampton’s under-18 team before joining Paul Tisdale at MK Dons in 2018 as first-team coach. After helping the club to promotion in 2019, Danny left MK Dons in November 2019 along with manager Paul Tisdale and assistant manager Matt Oakley. Danny was then appointed assistant manager of Macclesfield Town at the start of 2020 but, following the club’s eventual relegation from the Football League as a consequence of a points deduction and lengthy legal process, he left the Cheshire club in August 2020 before returning to Southampton in January 2021 in a role supervising the loan of academy players to other clubs. After the best part of two years back at Southampton Danny moved to Lincoln City in December 2022 as assistant head coach, once again teaming up with Mark Kennedy with whom he had worked at Macclesfield. Together with Kennedy, he left the Sincil Bank club in October 2023.  

Thereafter Danny was appointed assistant manager of Eastleigh in February 2024 and, together with manager Kelvin Davis, agreed a contract extension in April 2024.