G.O.A.T. - Wycombe Wanderers

David Francis 'Dave' Carroll was born on 20th September 1966 in Paisley, Scotland and spent 14 seasons at Wycombe Wanderers.
He joined them when they were a recently promoted Conference side in the summer of 1988 and went on to become a key member of the side that won promotion to the Football League in 1993.
An attacking midfielder, Dave was an England youth international who had been captured from Ruislip Manor for a four figure sum. He played more than 600 first-team games for Wycombe in all competitions, and scored exactly 100 goals. He was nicknamed 'Jesus' by the Wycombe supporters for his miraculous contributions with a football.
In 1994 Wycombe won a second successive promotion as Dave scored twice in their 4-2 victory against Preston North End in the play-off at Wembley.

He had become quite simply a Wycombe legend as he went on to become the third highest appearance maker in the history of the Club and in April 2001 scored his 100th first team goal in a Wycombe shirt. For those who were there to see it, his second goal in the 4-2 victory over Preston North End in the 1994 Play-off final mentioned earlier, will rank as one of the greatest ever Wycombe goals and one of the best seen at Wembley. He suffered from injury during the latter part of his a career but still managed to score crucial goals and swing games with his inspiration in midfield.

 Carroll has said that initially the Football League was a bit of a shock, "Nobody had made it as a pro, everyone had come through the non-league system, so there wasn't any expectation. The year before getting promoted we had lost out to Colchester United on goal difference. When we first got into the league it was a bit of a culture shock, the tackles were slightly stronger and fitness was certainly an issue. Then, after the first five or six weeks there was nothing really to fear, we started quite well and it just went on from there."

In November 1997, he was rewarded for his long service to the Chairboys with a testimonial game against Leicester City. Near the end of his career at Adams Park, no longer a first-team regular, Dave played the final ten minutes of Wycombe's famous FA Cup semi-final game against Liverpool in 2001.
In March 2002, he left Wycombe on a free transfer to join Aldershot Town.

Dave Carroll was voted by Wycombe fans as their best ever player in the FL125 vote with 39% of the vote ahead of Keith Ryan and Steve Guppy.