With David Williams unavailable for Friday 18th February 2005''s rearranged visit to Arsenal due to a family bereavement, City's Academy Under-18 side were in the very capable hands of former Cambridge United assistant manager Dale Brooks, who had in recent weeks been doing some work for the Norwich Academy.

It appears that former Ipswich player Brooks has been having a good influence on the squad as they came away from London Colney with a very creditable point; indeed most would agree that The Gunners were let off the hook as The Canaries produced one of their best performances of the entire season.

Dale returned to Norwich in the summer of 2009 take charge of City's Under-16s. He then became Head of Coaching at the Academy before joining Gary Holt's coaching team at Scottish side Falkirk in 2013.

In August 2014, Brooks returned to Norwich as Senior Professional Development Coach. Brooks will lead the club's Under-21s side in their Barclays Under-21 Premier League campaign

He left Norwich in the summer and worked briefly at Southend with their Under-21s. He was appointed Assistant Manager at Lowestoft on 15th October 2015.

In early November 2017, Brooks was named manager of Lowestoft after Ady Gallagher stepped down. Brooks’ first two games in charge both ended in defeat against Metropolitan Police and Needham Market, demonstrating the scale of the job he has taken on.

Brooks resigned on 22nd May 2018 despite helping stabilise the club on the pitch and steer the Trawlerboys clear of relegation amidst a backdrop that hasn’t seen the players properly paid for months. He admitted the financial landscape was proving too tough for him to take on. “It was a really difficult decision - I really didn’t know what I was going to do until midday on Tuesday,” said Brooks. “I want to be successful and I want to give everything that I’ve got but it was turning out to be too difficult. I couldn’t attract the calibre of players that I wanted to.”

.At the start of the 2022/23 season he was assisting AFC Sudbury manager Rick Andrews along with Ricky Cornish.