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It is now almost thirteen years since he left the Turf for Barnsley after captaining the Clarets to the play offs in the 1990/91 season. He had been with us four almost four years and somewhat appropriately for a player with the name Steve Davis he made 147 league appearances for us.
He signed from Crewe during the early stages of the 1987/88 season after originally coming on loan and I am proud to say I was heavily involved in some fund raising at the time that helped to pay the transfer fee. It was without doubt money well spent.
He helped turn us from strugglers to a side almost ready for promotion out of the basement division and it was a blow when he moved up two divisions to join The Tykes after the play off failure. It was understandable, there is no doubt that he was a player who should not have been playing at fourth division level.
At the end of his first season at Burnley he wore the Claret & Blue at Wembley in the 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy Final against his first club Wolves.
He was part of a unique duo a couple of seasons later. During the 1989/90 season we signed Mark II from Southampton on loan and there were times when we had a central defensive pairing of Steve Davis and Steve Davis. And no there are no jokes about that having the opposition snookered.
Having moved on to Barnsley he was there for seven years and in during his last season at Oakwell had a short loan spell with York City, his debut for them coming against the Clarets. It was the day we finally scored a league goal in the Waddle season although we lost 3-1.
Next stop was Oxford in 1998 and during his second season there he once more played at the Turf. It was to be his last appearance against us and on a very special day. It was the last game of the 20th Century and the day we opened the Jimmy McIlroy Stand. It was also the day of an Andy Payton hat-trick and a 3-2 win.
After Oxford he moved into the Conference with Northwich Victoria, initially as player and then as player/coach. His coaching was mainly with the youth team but last summer when manager Jimmy Quinn moved to Shrewsbury he took over as manager.
It was short-lived though and as they struggle at the bottom of the Conference he has moved on again and is now working with another former Claret at Nantwich – Nigel Gleghorn.
It will be Steve’s first half time appearance at Turf Moor – a player who I think was as good a central defender as we have had in the last twenty years or so.