Dean Williams spent two years with Cambridge United as a youngster, making one league appearance before joining St Albans City in 1989. After making 11 appearances at Clarence Park, he moved onto Hemel Hempstead and Wokingham. Williams then went back to St Albans, before Brentford bought him for £15,000.

Brentford released him after he picked up an injury, and Williams went onto train at Wycombe and Northampton. The latter had offered him a contract, but it was Boro’ that he would approach with a view to signing. Unable to settle here, however,, he left at the end of his first and only season.