Gavin was born in Hanover, Germany.

He was a trainee at Exeter in 1997 and 1998, playing in 1998/99 in the South West Counties Youth League and Devon and Exeter Youth league.

Canvey Island signed the "Promising young defender, who was described as tall and athletic". He had been captain at Braintree town and was watched by QPR, before signing for Canvey in  December 2002. In 2005 he was loaned to Nuneaton Borough where he was spotted by Shrewsbury who signed him in March 2005.
Gavin played over 20 games for the "Shrews" before going on loan to Kidderminster, before signing for Grays. 
His next move was a return loan move to Nuneaton, he signed permanently for them in 2007.

After nearly 40 appearances he joined Telford in 2008. 

He studied for a sports science degree at Shrewsbury College and had taken his coaching badges. He had also been involved with the Football Association helping to coach children of all ages and abilities.
After nearly 90 games for Telford he moved to Fleetwood in January 2010. A few months later he signed for Gainsborough Trinity.

Gavin left Gainsborough after the 2011/12 season to join Nuneaton Town, the club that reformed from his former team Nuneaton Borough, after they were won promotion  to the Conference Premier. After nearly 100 games and almost three seasons he moved to Solihull in 2015. 

In 2016 he moved back to Telford before taking on the management position following the resignation of Rob Edwards in May 2018. Gavin signed a new two year contract with the Club, in 2019 keeping him at New Bucks Head until the summer of 2021.

In March, 2021, the Chairman of Telford, Andy Pryce announced he would be staying at Telford as manager in a virtual fans forum.