Dean Coney made his football debut for Fulham against Newport County when he was just seventeen. Forming a flourishing partnership with Gordon Davies, he scored 19 goals in his first season gaining England Under 21 recognition. This scoring rate was not to continue and when he moved Queen's Park Rangers in 1987 for £200,000, he had scored fifty six times in 211 appearances for the Craven Cottage side. At QPR, Trevor Francis used Dean in midfield which did not suit his style of play.

A move to Norwich came in March 1989 for the sum of £350,000. Competing with Robert Fleck, Robert Rosario, Malcolm Allen and Lee Power for a place in the starting eleven limited Dean's appearances in a Norwich shirt to 17 league games , five of which were as substitute. A hernia problem and a snapped cruciate ligament ended Dean's Norwich career.

Some time was spent in Hong Kong with Ernst Borel before Dean joined non-league Farnborough Town. Now playing as a defender, he became their player-manager. He lost this position in the summer of 1997 and joined Carshalton Athletic of the ICIS League Premier Division. He has since had to retire through a knee injury but managed 21 appearances in 1997/98 scoring once.

Dean returned to management in March 1999 when he and Keith Day were placed in temporary charge of team affairs at Farnborough following the departures of Alan Taylor and then John Harding as manager of the troubled Conference side. Coney remained briefly at Farnborough as first team coach following the arrival of Graham Westley as manager. He has since done some coaching work with West Ham's schoolboys.

Dean joined his former Fulham teammate Jim Stannard at Conference South side Redbridge in January 2005 with Coney acting as Stannard's assistant.

After working as a self-employed labourer, he is now a manager at a branch of Ladbrokes.