Dave Mulligan

Barnsley

Mulligan was born in Liverpool, England, but his family moved to New Zealand when he was five. He returned to England at the age of 16, along with Rory Fallon, to join the youth team at Barnsley; the move had been arranged by Rory's father Kevin, who was an assistant to New Zealand head coach John Adshead. He made his professional debut for the club under Glyn Hodges's caretaker stewardship in a 3–0 defeat to Manchester City at Oakwell on 31 October 2001. Steve Parkin's "Tykes" were relegated out of the First Division at the end of the 2001–02 season, but Mulligan retained his place in the Second Division for the 2002–03 campaign. He scored his first senior goal in a 2–1 defeat at Oldham Athletic on 5 April 2003. However, he lost his first-team place under Guðjón Þórðarson early in the 2003–04 campaign and was released by Barnsley in October 2003, despite having been offered a new contract just five months earlier.

Doncaster Rovers

Mulligan had an unsuccessful trial at Sheffield United during four months without a club. He joined Third Division leaders Doncaster Rovers in February 2004, initially on a match-to-match basis, then on a short-term contract, before he was rewarded with a two-year contract after Doncaster won promotion as champions at the end of the 2003–04 season. He quickly established himself at the Keepmoat Stadium, but again ran into trouble early into the 2004–05 season, being placed on the transfer list by "Donny" in November…

Mulligan played for NZ Under-17 at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship and scored two goals in their two pool matches against the United States and Poland. Mulligan played for NZ Under-23 at the 2004 Athens Olympics qualification tournament for the Oceania Football Confederation, however, New Zealand lost out to Australia and did not qualify for the Olympics. He made his debut for "All Whites" in an international friendly against Estonia on 13 October 2002, which ended in a 3–2 defeat. He was named in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup squad in France by head coach Mick Waitt. He was also in the 2004 OFC Nations Cup squad and played in the 3–0 win over the Solomon Islands. He scored in a 2–1 win at Vanuatu in a World Cup qualifier on 17 November 2007 and also scored a brace in the return fixture four days later. He featured in all six games of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, which New Zealand won ahead of New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu. He was named part of the New Zealand squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2009. He made two starting appearances at right-back in defeats to Spain and South Africa, as well as a substitute appearance in the 0–0 draw with Iraq. Mulligan was named in New Zealand's final 23-man squad to compete at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa; he had been selected by head coach Ricki Herbert despite Herbert having released him at Wellington Phoenix. However, he did not feature in any of the games in the tournament itself.

Mulligan was a two-footed player, able to play in midfield or at right-back. He was an accomplished free kick taker.

Mulligan was appointed as head coach at Northern League club East Coast Bays in October 2016.