As a player, Darren was on Peterborough's books but did not break into the first team. He played for Kettering and Boston and had a spell in Hong Kong with Kui Tan in the early 90s, when he also represented the former British territory at international level. He returned to Boston before former England defender John Gidman took him to King's Lynn. He later played for Fakenham before joining Wisbech as manager.

The Cambridge United website reported on 20th April 2000 that Wisbech manager Darren Bloodworth was to join United at the end of the 1999/2000 season in a coaching role with the Youth Development Scheme. His main role will be to establish and recruit players to the CUFC Advanced Centre in Kings Lynn. "Darren is well known and highly regarded in that area having previously worked for Norwich City and currently lives in Kings Lynn." Darren abandoned his role at Wisbech and his column for the Pink Un. In late November 2000, Darren returned to King's Lynn to help Tony Spearing manage the struggling Linnets. Darren also worked as Director of the College of West Anglia's football academy which is run in conjunction with Kings Lynn football club

Another spell looking after the Linnets began on 14th November 2003 when Darren took on the caretaker role at Kings Lynn, with Kevin Boon, following the sacking of Peter Morris. Their role was made permanent in February 2004 as Lynn topped the Dr Martens Eastern Division - only to be beaten 3-1 by Tonbrige in Kevin and Darren's first official match in charge. Despite this initial setback, Lynn went on to win the Eastern Division title with a 2-0 win at Fisher Athletic on the final day of the season.

In early September 2004, Darren and Kevin quit as managers of Lynn following abuse from fans, after a mixedstart to the 2004/5 season, and a lack of support from Lynn's directors. Reserve team boss Robert Taylor was placed temporarily in charge following their departure. After some boardroom restructuring, both Darren and Kevin returned to Lynn in mid October with Darren taking on a director's role. In May 2005, Darren decided to leave Lynn for good, taking up a coaching role in the USA.

In November 2005, Darren returned to England and was reported as having rejoined Cambridge United as their youth team manager replacing Luke Hobbs, who has quit to join another former U’s youth manager, Ricky Duncan, at Southend United

On 10th June 2006, Norwich announced that Darren had rejoined the club, replacing Danny Laws as Education Officer - Laws vacating the role to spend more time with his family. The following year, Darren's role was expanded to provide coaching support for Academy Manager/Youth Team Coach Ricky Martin

Darren left Norwich in May 2008 to pursue opportunities closer to his home in Kings Lynn. However by August 2008, he was back with City as Education Officer and Under-14s coach. In 2010/11, he took charge of Under 12s squad with Jimmy Unwin.