After making around fifty league appearances for Stoke City, Mark Devlin played another thirty-odd Football League games for Exeter City in the late-1990s before enjoying a long non-league career with Northwich Victoria. 

Mark, who was to represent Scotland at youth level, moved south from Ayrshire to join Stoke City as a trainee in 1989. Becoming a full professional in April 1991, he went on to play 55 league matches for the Potters scoring twice. 

Remaining with Stoke until October 1997, Mark was twenty-four when he signed for Exeter City now managed by Peter Fox an old teammate from Stoke. Making his debut (whilst initially on loan) as a substitute against Swansea City on 11 October 1997, Mark missed very few games during the remainder of 1997/98 as he totalled 34 games in all competitions whilst scoring twice against Mansfield and Rochdale.

Unbeknown at the time, and with injuries ruling him out of the following campaign, Mark’s final game for the Grecians came in April 1998 before he re-emerged at Northwich Victoria ahead of the 1999/2000 Conference season. Proving to be a huge success at the Cheshire club, he was to appear in over 220 league games during the following seven seasons.