Chesterfield had built up a reputation of producing goalkeepers around forty years ago and it was there manager Jimmy Adamson went looking when he realised a replacement was needed for Peter Mellor.
He paid £50,000 for Stevenson, and only Paul Fletcher at the time had cost Burnley money, and the new goalkeeper went on to play 438 league games for us, just one short of the post-war record held jointly by John Angus and Jimmy McIlroy.
On his release in 1983 he signed for Rotherham but it was when he left Millmoor for a loan spell at Hartlepool that his career changed. He started work in their commercial department, eventually becoming the commercial manager.
His career has since taken him to clubs such as Middlesbrough, Wes t Brom, Huddersfield, Bolton, Coventry, Doncaster and Shrewsbury, as well as working on the Wembley project, before returning home to Chesterfield, his first club, to lead the move from Saltergate to their new ground.
Since then he's been their Marketing Director, and, just as he'd done at Coventry he was able to entice Elton John there for a sell out concert.
But his time back in his home town is over again and he's moved on to another club looking to move into a new stadium and last Friday was appointed as a consultant within the commercial team at York.
His major role will be to oversee the commercial activities surrounding their departure from Bootham Crescent to the new Community Stadium.
Alan, now aged 62, made his debut for Burnley at Orient in January 1972, a game we lost 1-0, with his last game for the Clarets being played over eleven years later in a 2-0 loss at Derby in April 1983.
During that time he was once named as a substitute for England, in a friendly against Portugal in Lisbon, and made eleven appearances for England under-23s, including one at centre forward.
Source: Clarets Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
