Dave Tarpey Interview – Football in Berkshire

It’s not every day you get to interview Diego Maradona – but the story of his football alter ego, Dave Tarpey, is not your average one.

During the 2014/15 season – and in a publicity stunt for sponsor Paddy Power – players and staff at Conference South side Farnborough Town changed their name through a poll in planning a match with Chelmsford City. Featured in Jose ‘Spencer Day’ Mourinho’s squad will be the likes of George Best, Bobby Moore and Johann Cruyff – with the diminutive Tarpey set to adopt the nickname ‘Diego Maradona’.

Reading-born Tarps – a bonafide Berkshire Football Icon – recalled: “Some of the players weren’t interested at first, but we saw what it would do for the club. The idea was that we would all change our names back at the end of the season, but the league didn’t like the idea, so it only lasted a few weeks and we didn’t really play a game under our new names. Paddy Power gave us a list of names they wanted to use, and we got three choices out of the four who played in our position. I chose Maradona because, like me, he was small, fast, and cunning.”

Following the second of two spells with Hampton – where he previously played under future returning Magpies boss Alan Devonshire – former Basingstoke and Boro man Tarpey joined traditional National League South strugglers Maidenhead United in 2014. Johnson Hippolyte’s side had another undistinguished league season but Tarpey was the rare star of the campaign, scoring 22 goals. On 4 May 2015 Tarpey and his team-mates picked up a Berks & Bucks Cup winners’ medal against Aylesbury United at Chesham in what had been announced as Hippolyte’s final game in charge after the best part of nine seasons at York Road.

But more importantly that day, Hippolyte’s successor was watching in the stands. Dev has agreed in principle to return to York Road, and despite the 4-0 win, he only retained five members of Hippolyte’s squad – captain Mark Nisbet, midfielder Ryan Upward, wingers Sam Barratt and Harry Pritchard and a certain D. Tarpey.

Tarpey then really took off. 69 goals followed in the next two seasons, with some astute signings in Devonshire’s second season and Tarpey’s goal taking United into the National League for the first time at the end of the 2016/17 season, their 98 points just enough to beat Ebbsfleet United on the final day. Tarps feels he owes a lot to his former manager, the recently retired Dev: “I felt Dev’s style of play really suited my game, playing with 2 up front and he let me play with a lot of freedom. The (title-winning) season with Marksy (17-goal Sean Marks, who arrived in the summer of 2016 from Devonshire’s old club Braintree) was definitely a standout season. I owe a lot to Marksy as he made my life very easy on the pitch.”

Of the manager, Tarpey spoke glowingly: “I had a great time with Dev at Hampton before he left for Braintree. When he came to Maidenhead, I knew I would enjoy playing under him again. He sets his team up to move the ball forward quickly and that’s been great for me. He’s always honest and talks to players at a good level, which is a good trait.” Under Devonshire, United – and the Tarps in particular – started the new season at the higher level very well, and by mid-August in his first season in the National League, Dave had scored seven goals in just four games. This included a scintillating four-goal haul at the end of a tough midweek trip to newly-promoted AFC Fylde at their plush Mill Farm venue on a night where he was applauded off the pitch from all sides of the pitch and the game had been billed before the match as a battle between the top two scorers in the National League North and South the previous season, Tarpey vs Danny Rowe – the latter barely getting a kick on the night.

Maidenhead as a part-time team did wonders, and Tarpey recalled that midweek trip: “I got up early, worked until after 11am, ran to our place and hopped on the team coach. Then we spent hours crawling around on the motorway before finally arriving at Fylde in the north west some 250 miles away. It was a long way, I can assure you. But it was a lot of fun.” Tarps added: “We can’t travel the day before, stay in a nice hotel and then drop into the stadium four hours before kick-off. It’s not like that. We all have jobs, I think most teams get the whole day off but I had to do it a few hours before we left. Yes, it was a long day. The coach didn’t get home until 3.30am! It’s all part of the experience. That’s the life of a non-League Footballer.”

However a few days later, Tarpey was no longer a Non-League footballer. At the age of 28, Tarpey’s dream of becoming a professional footballer came true when struggling EFL side Barnet made Devonshire an offer – and Tarpey – couldn’t refuse it. Cruelly, after leaving his job as a fire & security alarm installer, Tarpey suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his second appearance for the Bees, ruling him out for the remainder of the 2017/18 season. Barnet were relegated to the National League before the Tarps had the chance to wear the yellow shirts again.

Happier times were followed by a productive spell at Woking and in the summer of 2021, an ambitious Bracknell Town under the energetic management of Bobby Wilkinson emerged. The 2021/22 season saw The Robins win the Isthmian League South Central Division by a mile with Tarpey scoring 19 goals to secure his second divisional title winners’ medal. It is another period in his life that Dave remembers fondly: “I had a great time at Bracknell, winning the league. The players and fans were great there.”

After spells with Leatherhead – and a loan spell at Hungerford Town – there is just one final promotion season remaining at Tarpey, as another Isthmian South Central promotion was achieved with Marlow in 2023/24, this time via the play-offs with Tarps scoring another 24 goals. Tarpey has achieved more in eight seasons than some players achieve in a lifetime and he reflected: “Three promotions. They all mean the same thing to me, but the circumstances are different. At Maidenhead we were never expected to win the league and we did. At Bracknell we were always favorites, while at Marlow winning the play-offs in my first experience with them was incredible.”

To date, Tarpey is now enjoying his football as coach of the ambitious Reading City dugout who are undertaking another competitive season at Step 5 under the experienced guidance of Simon Johnson while also enjoying a fine FA Vase run. Tarpey approaches coaching with the same enthusiasm he demonstrated during his playing career which took him to Soccer AM and professional soccer. He praised the Rivermoor club: “Reading City were brilliant, Simmy was great to work under and made the move from playing to coaching very easy. All the staff and players were very welcoming.”