Mansfield-born, Steve Hardwick joined Chesterfield as an amateur in the summer of 1972, having been an associated schoolboy with the club. He had had a successful trial with Huddersfield Town that year alongside the Chesterfield-born Bob Newton, and while Newt signed the Terriers’ apprenticeship forms, Steve didn’t. His early promise in Chesterfield’s Northern Intermediate League side was noted, and he was called up for the England Amateur Youth international games against Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1973/74.
The sale of Jim Brown to Sheffield United in March 1974 saw Steve graduate from the youth team to the reserves, in the North Midlands League. A penalty save in the North Midlands League Cup semi-final against Notts County in the same month helped the reserves into the final, where they lost to Hull City’s second string. Steve stepped up to the professional ranks in July 1974 and made his Football League debut on October 12, 1974, in a 2-1 defeat at home to Blackburn Rovers. Steve returned to the side for the last four games of the season after Phil Tingay broke a collar bone at Watford and performed well.
Tingay reclaimed his place at the start of the 1975/76 season, but Steve kept the pressure up with displays of growing assurance in the reserves. Agile, brave and quick-thinking, he stepped back into the first team in March 1976 when Tingay was injured and was not displaced again. Steve’s contribution to keeping the club in Division Three in 1975/76 has perhaps been overlooked, in that his return to the side coincided with the debut on loan of the stylish and effective Graham Cross.
A stunning reflex save to keep his goal intact after only two minutes of the opening match of the 1976/77 season against Rotherham set the tone for Steve’s remaining performances. Scouts added his name to their watch lists, and when Steve single-handedly kept Crystal Palace at bay in a goalless draw at Selhurst Park in November 1976, Newcastle United crystallised their interest. Protracted negotiations concluded on December 29, when Arthur Cox, Arthur Sutherland and Steve drove to St James’ Park to finalise a transfer for a fee of £80,000.
The deal meant that Chesterfield had netted around £200,000 from the sale of three keepers over the previous six years, Alan Stevenson and Jim Brown being the others. Within a year, Steve Ogrizovic’s sale to Liverpool would add another £65,000 to that, and cement Chesterfield’s reputation as the league’s “goalkeeper factory”.
Newcastle stressed that Steve had been signed as cover for first-choice Mike Mahoney, and so this proved. Steve had to wait until August 1977 for his Football League debut for the Magpies, but he couldn’t have asked for a more significant match than Liverpool, at Anfield.
Having played nine times for the Magpies in 1977/78, Steve was loaned to the Detroit Express club in the NASL in April 1978 and returned that August as first-choice at St. James’ Park. The club had just been relegated to Division Two and were in a transitional phase that lasted beyond Steve’s time there. Still, he clocked up 92 Football League appearances for them before leaving for Oxford for a £15,000 fee in 1982. He was first-choice as Oxford won consecutive promotions from Division Three to Division One, leaving only after Oxford were relegated from the top flight in 1988. His last years at the Manor Ground included short loan spells at Crystal Palace and Sunderland before Steve joined Huddersfield Town in the summer of 1988. An appraisal of Steve’s time with the Terrier can be found here: STEVE HARDWICK: REST IN PEACE Huddersfield Town (htafc.com)
After joining Scarborough on a trial basis in 1991/92, Steve moved into non-league football with Kettering, Emley and Boston United. Steve went back to college to train in amenity horticulture and became the wicketkeeper-groundsman at Hoylandswaine Cricket Club while working as the Northern Area Manager for a firm of sports turf suppliers.
We extend our condolences to Steve’s family and friends.
