Name: Dave Bayliss
DOB: 8th June 1976
Dale debut: 1st April 1995 v Barnet, Home 2-2
Also played for: Luton Town, Chester City, Wrexham, Lancaster City
Time at Dale: Dave Bayliss is a central defender who has represented Dale in two separate spells making 189 appeances, scoring 9 goals.
Having come through the ranks at the Club, he came back for a loan spell later on in his career. He was the first real product of the youth set up that had been reorganised in the late 80’s. There had been others before who had come through and threatened to make it as a professional footballer but significantly none of them went on to play more than a handful of appearances.
It was under Mick Docherty that he first made his appearance in a Dale shirt as a fresh faced eighteen year old and he did well enough to remain a regular member of the squad during this time. Cruelly, Dave was left out of Dale’s trip to Anfield in the FA Cup despite being a star performer in the side which had got there in the first place. Despite that snub, he continued to be a regular in the side and looked to be a real prospect for the future, however that summer, Docherty was on his way out and Graham Barrow was appointed manager, never really taking a shine to him.
Under Steve Parkin, Dave became more of a regular in the side, despite there always being another two or three central defenders at the Club for competition, he played more games in two seasons than he had under three years of Graham Barrow. He matured as a player and was no longer looked upon as being the young up and coming player, but more as a player worthy of a first team place.
Dave left to join Luton Town but returned to Dale, making four appearances for Dale, the last of which ended with a red card against Wrexham, the side he was on loan to Dale from at the time.
What are you doing since leaving Dale?: Dave spent 4 seasons at Luton Town making 37 league appearances plus 9 games on loan to Chester City before being released in the summer of 2005.
He spent the next season with Wrexham making 22 league appearances plus the 4 game loan spell back at Rochdale.
In the summer of 2006, he joined Lancaster City but then left at the start of November to join Barrow, later becoming joint manager of Barrow, along with Darren Sheridan overseeing a major turnaround in their season. The Bluebirds were 19th in the Conference North when they took over before an excellent second half to the season saw them finish 5th and qualify for the end of season play-offs. A 4–0 aggregate win over Telford United in the semi-finals was followed by a 1–0 win against Stalybridge Celtic in the final thus a place in the Conference National for the 2008–09 season followed by successfully keeping Barrow in the Conference National the following season, finishing 20th. With Sheridan he led Barrow to Wembley and the 2010 FA Trophy final, where they played Conference National champions Stevenage Borough, who they defeated 2–1 after extra time to lift the Trophy. He remained registered as a player until the end of the 2010–2011 season before leaving in November 2013.