David Preece

Early career

Preece was born Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. He began his football career in his hometown at Sunderland but failed to make a senior appearance before joining Darlington for free on a two-year deal. At Darlington, Preece made over 100 appearances in two seasons before leaving Darlington to move to Scotland by joining Aberdeen. Since leaving Darlington, the club attempted to re-sign Preece but the move never materialised. At Aberdeen, Preece made over 100 appearances in 6 seasons and faced competition from Jim Leighton, Peter Kjær and Ryan Esson. Up until Kjær's retirement, Preece began to get more playing time and captained the team on several occasions, until the club decided to transfer list Preece along with three other players. In 2005, Preece left Scotland to move to Denmark by joining Silkeborg IF first and OB second. At Silkeborg, Preece was a first-choice goalkeeper until he left for OB where his first-team opportunities began to decline due to Arkadiusz Onyszko pushing him out of the first team.

Barnsley

After being released by OB, Preece returned to England by joining Barnsley free on a one-year contract, with the option to extend the contract by a further year, and was expected to compete with Luke Steele. After spending the first half of the season on the bench, Preece's big chance of his first team came when he made his debut for the club (and first team in English football for 10 years) in a 1–0 loss against Watford on 12 September…