Best-known for his playing days at Manchester United and his time as Jack Charlton’s assistant manager with the Republic of Ireland, Honiton-born, Maurice Setters played for Exeter City as a teenager in the mid-1950s. Playing just ten times for the Grecians, he was only eighteen when he moved to West Bromwich Albion where he enjoyed considerable success before moving to Old Trafford. He also had good spells at Stoke City and Coventry City.      

East Devonian Maurice started his career as a junior with Exeter City after leaving school and quickly progressed via the reserves to make his first team debut against Southend United in March 1954 as a seventeen-year-old when he took the number seven shirt. 

Not playing again that season, he was felt to be not quite ready for league football and did not play in any of the first seventeen games of the season. He then took the number four shirt for the  the 7-1 defeat Leyton Orient in November 1954 as he replaced the absent Arnold Mitchell. With Mitchell returning for the next game, Maurice kept his place effectively replacing the likes of Tommy Dunne and John Owens as the team was reshuffled to accommodate both him and Arnold. 

Settled in the side, he began a run of nine sucessive appearances between early November and mid-January when - just turning eighteen - his performances started to take the eye of bigger clubs. Maurice also had his solitary FA outing for the Grecians during this period when he faced Millwall in the first round although, for a player who was to go on to great things in the competition, it was a brief and inglorious episode as City suffered a 3-2 loss at The Den. 

Maurice's leaving of St James' Park came in January 1955 when he was transferred to West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £3,000. Although City claimed that they didn't want him to go - and argued that the move was purely out of financial necessity - it was clear that Maurice was a young player of considerable potential and would be on the move sooner rather than later especially as City were suffering such a poor season. 

And so his potential was proved as he went on to make 120 league appearances for West Bromwich Albion as well as playing 16 times for the England Under-23 side to add to his caps he won at schools and youth level. He was included in England's 1958 FIFA World Cup squad as a reserve player but did not travel to the tournament or play in any matches.

In January 1960 Maurice left for Manchester United in a £30,000 transfer. As well as playing 159 league games for United (scoring 12 goals) he was also in the team that won the F.A. Cup in 1963. Signing for Stoke City in November 1964 for £30,000 he added a further 86 league outings before moving to Coventry City in a £25,000 deal where he played 86 league matches. He ended his Football League career with Charlton Athletic, signing for them in January 1970 and staying until the end of the season featuring in 8 league matches.

Maurice became manager of Doncaster Rovers in May 1971 until November 1974. He left in unhappy circumstances and won a case for unfair dismissal. It was some time before he was involved in football again, when he became a coach at Sheffield Wednesday in November 1980. He was then appointed assistant manager and coach to Rotherham United in 1983 and a year later was working as chief scout to Newcastle United. Having worked with Jack Charlton at Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle, the pair of them became manager and assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland in 1986, and took them to the 1988 European Championships and the 1990 World Cup Finals.

Maurice Setters died in November 2020 aged 83 after spending his final years in a residential home in Doncaster.