Alex Stepney - End of An Era

End of An Era

The following year, Stepney was again not an automatic choice, playing fewer than half of United's games in the League. He played the last of his 546 games for Manchester United in April 1978, prior to leaving for Dallas Tornado in the North American Soccer League in the United States, where he remained until he retired from professional football in 1980.

He kept 175 clean sheets, made a club record 92 consecutive appearances (later broken by Steve Coppell) and, with those two goals, remains United's top scoring goalkeeper. Aside Peter Schmeichel (who scored in a UEFA Cup game in the 1995–96 season) no other Manchester United goalkeeper has scored in a competitive game for the club in the post Second World War years.

Towards the end of his career, he turned out for non-league side Altrincham in the early 1980s, when they were competing in the Alliance Premier League (which became the Football Conference in 1986). He helped them win the Alliance Premier League title in 1980–81 (they had won it the 1979–80 season as well), but they did not win promotion to the Football League as the re-election system was still in place and the majority of the league's members voting against them joining the Football League, ending Stepney's hopes of a professional comeback.

Stepney became a coach specialising in goalkeeping after he stopped playing, including a spell at Manchester City as recently as 2000–01. He also works as an after-dinner speaker and currently hosts The Legends Football Phone in on 105.4 Century Radio in Manchester, replacing Mickey Thomas – another former Manchester United player.