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Central defender Steve Shea joined St Albans City as a 19-year-old at the start of 1985 and first appeared for the club as a substitute for the Reserve team during a 3-2 Wallspan Southern Combination victory Oxford City on 26th January. He went on to make more than 50 appearances for the Reserves and play a further 17 times in the First team.
After playing three times for the First team, his debut coming on New Year’s Day 1986 as City won 4-1 away to Chesham United in Division One of the Isthmian League, he had to wait until the final match of the season before making his fourth appearance. But what a fourth game it was as John Mitchell’s side secured the championship and promotion to the Premier Division with a 7-1 win at Lewes.
After a spell of being in and out of the side during the 1986-87 season he then had loan spells with Tring Town, Stevenage Borough, and Harlow Town. After leaving City for the first time he signed for Hendon, under Ron Duke, and was in the same side as Iain Dowie who had also joined the Dons from St Albans. From Claremont Road his next destination was Hitchin Town.
Rejoined the Saints midway through the 1989-90 season, under Peter Lawrence who had also been his manager at Hitchin, but on 27th February he sustained a broken leg in a 50/50 challenge for the ball with the then future St Albans City manager Steve Ketteridge. A collection was held for Steve Shea’s benefit during the home match against Marlow on 17th March. Ironically, Shea later played for Aylesbury when Ketteridge was manager at Buckingham Road.
After recovering from the broken leg he made a handful of appearances in the Reserve team during 1990-91 before teaming up with ‘Lasher’ Lawrence for a third time, on this occasion at Harrow Borough.
Steve had a third and final spell at Clarence Park during 1993-94 when he played a further six games in the Capital League.
Prior to, and in the years after, his final spell with the Saints Steve played for a cluster of clubs and for a number of well-known figures from the non-league game. He had second spells at Harrow (approximately 150 games) and Hitchin, and had played for Staines Town, Rushden & Diamonds, Leighton Town (again under Lawrence) and Chesham United.
In the mid 1990’s he moved to Coventry and, in addition to meeting his wife Angela, joined VS Rugby. Before hanging up his boots at the age of 36 he also turned out for Ilkeston Town (winning promotion from the Southern League Midland Division), Moor Green, Telford United (loan), Rugby United (formerly VS Rugby and now Rugby Town) and Ford Sports (Daventry), before finally calling it a day at Rugby.
In addition to those already mentioned, the managers he played under include George Borg, Wayne Wanklyn, Andy Melvin, Roger Ashby, the former City goalkeeper Paul O’Reilly and, at Ilkeston, Keith Alexander.
Steve attained a UEFA ‘B’ – Level 3 Coaching Licence and served for more than four years as assistant manager to Tony Dobson at Rugby Town. The duo moved to Solihull Borough, who merged with Moor Green to become Solihull Moors.
When Iain Dowie was appointed manager of Coventry City in 2007 Steve, along with Bob Dowie, joined the coaching staff at the Ricoh Stadium. Steve followed Iain when he was appointed manager of Queens Park Rangers and spent three years at Loftus Road. He is currently in his second stint as a scout for Leicester City having, in between times, spent a year and a half at Hull City.
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