Steve Davis

Born in Birmingham, Davis started his career with Stoke City as an apprentice in 1982 but never made a senior appearance. However, he played more than 140 matches for both Crewe Alexandra and Burnley, making his Crewe debut at the age of 18, and captaining the team aged 19. He was also a key figure in the time he was at Burnley. He then played over 100 matches for Barnsley in Division 1, including 24 appearances in the season in which they were promoted to the Premier League. He had loan spells at York City and Oxford United, eventually being signed by Division 1 outfit, Oxford United in 1998. The final years of his playing career saw him in Cheshire with Macclesfield Town, and with Northwich Victoria and Nantwich Town – where he was player-manager of both clubs.

Davis was capped by the England national youth team.

Northwich Victoria

He was appointed as player-manager of Northwich Victoria in June 2003. He resigned in September 2003, after the team were second bottom of the Conference National in the 2003–04 season.

Nantwich Town

However, his managerial career at Nantwich Town was the most successful time in the club's long history, converting a club that had never achieved anything above the North West Counties League to one that was challenging for a Conference spot. He led Nantwich to two promotions in successive seasons and a FA Vase victory, just missing out on promotion to the Conference North at the end of the 2008–09 season. His abilities attracted the attention of Crewe Alexandra, where he had spent four seasons as a player. On 17 May 2009, it was announced that he would become assistant manager to Gudjon Thordarson at Crewe.

Crewe Alexandra

Davis remained as Thordarson's assistant through the Icelandic's short lived tenure at Gresty Road before the former Stoke City manager was relieved of his role in October 2009. Taking up the vacant manager's role was Dario Gradi, now in his third stint as Crewe manager kept Davis as his assistant manager. Gradi remained in the managerial position at the club until the autumn of 2011 his position was starting to become questioned by the Crewe fans, this was only galvanised further by a 3–0 home defeat to Torquay United which left the club near the relegation zone. Although Gradi was still manager of the club,…

Davis's son Harry was at Crewe Alexandra but now plays for AFC Fylde, and is also a centre-back. He made his professional debut at the end of the 2009–10 season, playing for Crewe against Bradford City. Another son, Joe, is a former defender, having made his professional debut at Port Vale during his first spell in April 2011. During Steve Davis's time as Crewe manager, for 33 minutes of a match at Port Vale on 22 February 2014, his sons played on opposite teams against each other. Joe later played at Nantwich Town before retiring.