Steve Neville (born 18 September 1957) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He is assistant coach at

Sorrento FC Sorrento Football Club, commonly known as Sorrento FC, is a Western Australian semi-professional soccer club based in the northern Perth, Western Australia suburb of Duncraig. They currently compete in the National Premier Leagues Western Aus ...

in Perth, Western Australia. In his 14-season career in the English Football League, he played in 494 games, in which he scored 135 goals for Southampton, Sheffield United, Bristol City and in three spells at Exeter City. In England he was part of two divisional title-winning teams and was a winner of the Football League Trophy. Near the end of his playing career, he picked up a league champions medal playing for South China AA in Hong Kong.

Playingg career

Southampton

Neville began his career as an apprentice with Southampton. He made half a dozen league appearances for Saints in 1977–78. Managed by Lawrie McMenemy, Southampton finished that season as runners up in England's second tier, earning promotion to English football's top flight.DIVISION 2 1977/78, footballsite.co.uk
/ref>

Exeter City (first spell)

Aged 20, Neville signed for Exeter City in the summer of 1978. This coincided with the beginning of three of the best seasons in the club's history in terms of league finishes. The three-season spell of Third Division finishes of 9th,DIVISION 3 1978/79
/ref> 8th
/ref> and 11th
/ref> have only been bettered by the club in the early 1930s. He was a regular during the club's stay in the third tier, in which he hit 22 goals in his 93 league games. Exeter also enjoyed some creditable cup runs. In Neville's first season there, they included League Cup wins against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and Blackburn Rovers before being knocked out in the fourth round by Graham Taylor's resurgent Watford. League Cup 1978/79 Results
/ref> The next season Exeter reached the same stage knocking out Birmingham City en route before losing 2–0 to Liverpool at Anfield.League Cup 1979/80 Results
/ref>

Sheffield United

He joined a Sheffield United side mid-season in 1980 who failed to hold their place in the Third Division. The season after, The Blades bounced back to win the 1981–82 Fourth Division title under

Ian Porterfield John Ian Porterfield (11 February 1946 – 11 September 2007) was a Scottish professional footballer, and an experienced football coach who worked at both club and international level for almost 30 years. At the time of his death, he was the coa ...

's management.DIVISION 4 1981/82
/ref>

Exeter City (second spell)

Aged 22, in the 1982 close season he rejoined Exeter. The team had already peaked, though, and Exeter did not reach the heights they did in Neville's first spell there. Exeter were relegated in 1983–84,
/ref> the season of the ill-fated reign of

Gerry Francis Gerald Charles James Francis (born 6 December 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Playing career Francis made his first team debut for Queens Park Rangers against Liverpool in March 1969. He was captain and central midfield play ...

. In his 92 league games, Neville scored 27 goals.

Bristol City

In another mid-season transfer he joined

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

in 1984 signed by Terry Cooper. In his late 20s, it was here Neville was to play the highest-level football of his career. The Robins were competitive in the Third Division throughout Neville's time there, challenging for promotion with finishes of 5th, DIVISION 3 1984/85
/ref> 9th
/ref> and 6th.
/ref> In his fourth season there, Bristol City finished fifth,
/ref> meriting a place in the playoffs, where Walsall ultimately won the final. Neville hit 40 goals from his 134 league games.

Exeter City (third spell)

Aged 31, he rejoined Exeter for a third spell in the summer of 1988. Neville was again under Cooper's management. In 1989–90 Exeter also enjoyed another League Cup run where Swansea, Blackpool and Blackburn were eliminated as Exeter reached the fourth round again. They were knocked out by Sunderland in a replay after drawing 2–2 at home.Littlewoods Cup 1989/90 Results
/ref> Neville helped the club win promotion back to Division Three in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

.DIVISION 4 1989/90
/ref> In this spell Neville played in 120 Exeter first team league games, in which he scored 39 goals. In total for Exeter in the League, he played in 305 games and scored 98 league goals.

South China

In 1991 Neville left to play for

South China AA South China Athletic Association (known simply as South China, SCAA, ) is a Hong Kong professional football club that competes in the Hong Kong First Division, the second-tier league in Hong Kong football league system. The club is historic ...

, the historically most successful club in the Hong Kong League. South China ended the season as champions. In what has been described as a great period for Hong Kong domestic football,

Coaching career

In 1993 he joined Western Australian state league side Sorrento as a coach. He is still in this role for the 2020 NPL Season.

Honours

Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1989–90 Fourth Division

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neville, Steve 1957 births Living people Footballers from Walthamstow English footballers English Football League players Southampton F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players South China AA players Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Exeter City F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football forwards English expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong English expatriate footballers