David Stockdale talks out about his time at Wycombe Wanderers.

Goalkeeper David Stockdale has confessed that he almost’stopped playing football’ before joining Wycombe Wanderers.

The 38-year-old, who most recently played for York City in the National League, appeared 76 times for the Chairboys across three seasons between 2018 and 2022. He joined the Chairboys on a six-week loan from Birmingham City in the autumn of 2018, but was recalled after only two appearances. In January 2020, he returned to Adams Park and played two more games for the club before signing permanently in the summer.

Stockdale was a member of the side that won promotion to the Championship, and despite not playing a single game for the club in the first half of the 2020/21 season, he finished the season as Wanderers’ number one goalkeeper. The next year, he played every second of Wycombe’s league and play-off campaign, winning the golden glove with 18 clean sheets.

Before his move to South Buckinghamshire, Stockdale was Birmingham’s first-choice keeper in 2017/18, but he was kicked out of the squad for the entire 2018/19 season, forcing him to train with the U23s and then the U18s under the club’s hierarchy.

That year, he was loaned out to several other clubs until being re-signed for the 2019/20 season, when he played just one game in six months. Speaking about his time at Wycombe, Stockdale told the Undr the Cosh podcast: “I was definitely at one of my lowest periods because during the first three to four months [of the 2018/19 season], I still thought I had a chance [to get back into the first team]. “But it got to six months and I hit a low, and Wycombe called and said, ‘We need a loan keeper because our keeper is out.

“They agreed on a weekly price, so I went there [to Wycombe] and enjoyed it. “I played the first game, which we won, and then in the second game, which was away to Accrington Stanley, I was named man of the match – I was on fire. “You went from drinking alone at night to playing again, and all I wanted was more of it. “But then the director went to the manager [Gareth Ainsworth] after the game and said, ‘Birmingham have called Stocks back.'” “My first thought was that they had noticed [how well I was playing].” “It turned out that they didn’t want to see me succeeding when they weren’t, and they claimed Wycombe wasn’t paying enough.

“Wycombe said ‘we agreed six weeks’ and they [Birmingham] said it wasn’t enough money.” The next year, he moved to Coventry City and Southend United before returning to Wycombe in 2020. He said, “I needed to get out of Birmingham. “I went to Wycombe [again] to get out, and Gareth Ainsworth offered me a chance. “He stated he couldn’t guarantee I’d play, but if it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t have continued playing football. “I felt so exhausted; the [Birmingham] fans despised me, and all I did was attempt to play football. “Then you go to Wycombe, and you have Gareth Ainsworth going ‘whooo!’ while listening to rock music in the changing room – it was fantastic.

“Even though I wasn’t playing [at the time] at Wycombe, I was loving it there.

“I took something like a 90 per cent wage cut to stay there and Wycombe wants what’s best for the players.

“Wycombe is a very special club.”