Non-League and Academy football writer

Dave McEwen is one of not very many footballers, who in fairly recent years, started out playing senior football in the SAL, and who would later progress/make it as a professional footballer. A Londoner who was born in the borough of Westminster, Dave McEwen started his senior footballing journey with famous Southern Amateur League side Crouch End Vampires, back in the late 1990s.

Although I couldn’t find Dave McEwen stats relating to his time at the north London amateur side, the striker would, a year later in 1998, join Crawley Town, who were then playing non-League football. I’m sure that playing his football in the SAL at a very early stage of his career, would have provided Dave McEwen with a great footballing grounding, as well as some really good experience of playing senior football. A tall and physical football, who worked hard off the ball, and who had a lot of pace, Dave would trial for Brentford, actually against Crawley Town, in the summer of 1999.

Dave McEwen would do well in pre-season friendlies for Brentford. However, despite being offered a professional contract by Brentford, he would make the difficult decision to turn it down, because he was just about to begin his final year of a three year business studies degree at London University. Following on from that trial with Brentford, Dave would return to playing non-league football, and after a successful spell with Dulwich Hamlet, he was scouted by Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Joining Spurs as a part-time pro, Dave would later sign professional forms after having completed his degree. Progressing from the reserves, he would make his debut for Spurs’ first team, as a substitute against Derby County, in a Premier League fixture. Dave McEwen would make a further three competitive appearances for Spurs, before leaving the club at the end of the 2000/2001 season, after his contract had expired.

After leaving Spurs, Dave McEwen would spend some time with QPR, whose first team he did represent on occasions, before then playing non-League football for Crawley Town, once again, and then Hertford Town, in 2003. In what was a fascinating journey in to professional football, going from the SAL to the Premier League within the space of three years, is some achievement. However, the SAL, is a really good standard of amateur football, with so many very good players playing across the top divisions of that league.