David Cole, who had played a considerable amount of football for Swindon Town and Torquay United, joined Exeter City from Rochdale in 1991 but only made two appearances at the very end of his professional career.  

Yorkshire-born David was living on the Isle of Man and playing football for Laxey when he was spotted by Sunderland in a summer tournament. Arriving on Wearside as a professional in October 1983, David didn’t make the first team and moved on to Swansea City in September 1984 where he played eight league games. Switching to Swindon Town in February 1985, David saw far more first-team football as he made around seventy league appearances ahead of joining Torquay United, initially on loan, in November 1986.

A member of the side that narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference and went on to a play-off final the following season, David was a regular in Cyril Knowles’ side at Plainmoor as he accumulated over a hundred league appearances before leaving for Rochdale in July 1989. Adding 84 league appearances during two seasons at Spotland, David arrived at St James’ Park on trial in August 1991. 

Making his debut for Exeter City as a substitute in the 6-1 defeat at Shrewsbury on 31 August 1991, David made just one more substitute appearance in the league before leaving the club. He then moved to South Wales and appeared for Merthyr Tydfil for a couple of seasons before settling in the Cardiff area.