David Hodgson was one of many seasoned strikers (see also David Fairclough, Gary Rowell) from the North East who spent a brief period of their careers at Carrow Road in the mid-1980s. Nine appearances were made by Hodgson for Norwich City. This resulted in four goals although three of these came as a hat-trick in the League Cup against Millwall.

David originally began his career with Middlesbrough although prior to that he had trials with Ipswich, Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday. After 127 appearances in the red shirts of the Teesiders, David was signed by Liverpool. However like many players, he succumbed to the temptations of the fast life and only managed 28 appearances for Liverpool scoring four goals. A return to the North East came in the summer of 1984 with a move to his boyhood favourites Sunderland. He played in the Milk Cup final defeat at the hands of Norwich at Wembley. Granted a free transfer the following summer, he opted to join Norwich rather than IFK Gothenburg. Failing to establish himself in the Norwich first team, he joined Middlesbrough on loan but was sent-off and did not complete his loan spell. His attempts to resurrect his career has taken him to Spain (Jerez), Japan (Mazda), France (Metz), Germany (Mainz), Wales (Swansea) and the delights of Sheffield (Wednesday).

In his second management spells at Division Three side Darlington, he appointed Ian Butterworth as his Assistant Manager in May 1998. He was also linked to ex-Norwich goalkeeper Bryan Gunn . David was also rumoured to be on the short list for the manager's position at Carlisle.

David received a cash windfall with the arrival of George Reynolds as the new chairman in May 1999. Reynolds has provided money for the signing of Oxford midfielder Martin Gray and for ground improvements. However Hodgson and Butterworth knew that had to meet Reynolds' ambitions if they wish to keep their jobs. Reynolds and Hodgson's ambitions almost bore fruit at Darlington reached the Division Three play-off finals at Wembley.Unfortunately they lost to Peterborough but David was promised that his job was safe. In June 2000, David was linked with the vacancy at Bristol City following Tony Fawthrop's resignation. However Reynolds claimed that Hodgson is going nowhere.

In a surprise move, Hodgson and Butterworth both resigned their jobs on 2nd August 2000 with Gary Bennett immediately replacing Hodgson as Darlington's supremo. In November 2000, Hodgson was linked with a consortium seeking to buy Darlington so a return to Feethams was a possibility. Instead David joined Preston in November 2001 to act as their European Scout.

With Darlington looking likely candidates for relegation at the end of October 2003, George Reynolds approached David with the offer to return to Darlington as manager. He accepted on 30th October 2003 with current manager Mick Tait dropping down to develop the youth sides.

Hodgson stayed with Darlington until early October 2006 when he was sacked. Although initially reported as sacked for talking to Bournemouth about their vacancy, Darlington stated on 18th October 2006 that it was for a breach of Football League rules concerning payments to agents.