After winning England Schoolboy honours, the young defender made his Minstermen bow as a 17 year old as a sub for Steve Senior in a 1-1 draw with Rochdale in front of just 783 fans in a Freight Rover Trophy Preliminary Round match in January 1987. Ex Spireites Andy Leaning and Keith Walwyn were team-mates.
No more games that season but 21 games under Manager Bobby Saxton came in 87-88, his side were relegated from the old Division Three at the end of that season despite a 1-0 home win over Chesterfield, City's first win of the season in their 16th game, a match remembered for The Spireites dreadful performance, remembered by the writer as the worst he's ever seen by a Chesterfield team, it included a Dave Caldwell dismissal after he'd run 50 yards to get involved in a fracas.
However Chesterfield did beat a City side including Tutill in the renamed Sherpa Van Trophy. Steve remained a pro with his local Club for over 10 years, his first goal came on April 29th 1989 in a 3-3 draw at home to Rochdale, Iain Dunn got one of the other goals, Chris Marples was in goal and Steve Spooner was in midfield whilst Chris Beaumont played for Dale.
After struggling in lower mid-table for several years, in 1993 York, now managed by John Ward, won promotion via the play-offs, beating a Crewe side at Wembley (22,416 crowd) which included Rob Edwards and Darren Carr, 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 ninety-minute exchange, Steve came on as a sub for Paul Stancliffe after being out for much of the regular season.
The following season saw Steve ever-present and they made the play offs again, losing 1-0 on aggregate in the semi's to Stockport, their scorer being that man Chris Beaumont.
Missed out in City's League Cup win over Everton, but played in the home loss in the next round against Emile Heskey and his Leicester City colleague.
Suffered an injury in the second game of 97-98, against Bristol Rovers, and that
was Steve's 301st and last York League game.
Steve Celebrating With Darlington
Moved to Darlington after regaining fitness, his debut must have been a nightmare, a 4-0 loss at Mansfield Town, though the Quakers won their next three matches. Under David Hodgson, Darlo finished mid-table in 98-99 but in the following season which included running Aston Villa close (2-1) in the FA Cup, Steve helped the Feethams Club to a play off berth, they beat Hartlepool to get to Wembley, 33,383 were there this time, but Andy Clarke's goal for Peterborough meant that Steve tasted defeat to complete his Play Off "hat-trick" of a final win, a final loss and a semi-final loss.
Soon after Steve moved to Saltergate where he firmly established himself , scoring in his second game, a 2-1 win at Hartlepool, before that ankle problem struck. He's been in full training for a couple of weeks or so now, so it won't be long before the strength and commitment of the defender is seen in the Blue of Chesterfield again.
Steve Tutill's League Career
League Games League Goals
York City 301 6
Darlington 70 0
Chesterfield 19 1
Total 390 7
