Steve Williams, widely-remembered for his long stay at Southampton and subsequent appearances for Arsenal, made nearly fifty league appearances for Exeter City during the early-1990s at the end of his Football League career of over 450 games.

Steve became an apprentice with Southampton on leaving school in 1974 and a full professional in July 1976 shortly after Saints had won the FA Cup. Having made his debut as a 17-year-old at Portsmouth in April 1976, Steve went on to play 277 league matches for Southampton scoring 18 goals. He was the club’s player of the year in his first full season and represented England at Under-21 level on fourteen occasions before winning four caps for England ‘B’ and six full international caps between 1983 and 1984. 

Requesting a transfer in December 1984, Steve soon joined Arsenal in a £550,000 deal and made 95 league appearances - with a League Cup final success in 1987 - before joining Luton Town where he made a rather restricted number of appearances over three seasons.

Aged thirty-three, and working alongside former Southampton team mate and now Exeter manager Alan Ball, Steve became assistant player-manager of Exeter City in August 1991. With former Southampton colleague Steve Moran also on board, Steve made his Exeter debut in a 6-3 defeat at West Bromwich Albion on the opening day of the 1991/92 season and remained at St James’ Park for two seasons as he started 44 league games and came off the bench in another four matches.

With Exeter finishing 20th and 19th in the third-tier, Steve left the club ahead of more turbulent times and briefly appeared for Derry City in the League of Ireland area before settling in the Exeter area and going into magazine publishing with former Exeter City chief executive Allen Trump. Later moving into property development, Steve continued to live at West Hill near Ottery St Mary for many years.