Having failed to get many First Division games at Middlesbrough, in his native North Yorkshire, in 1913-14, Bill Stage spent the first season after the Great War playing regularly for Hibernian in the Scottish First Division.

His second stab at the Football League was considerably more successful than the first: in his seven seasons at Gigg Lane, he played in more than 200 League games, as Bury were promoted to Division I and had three top-five finishes. Bill then had two seasons at Burnley, which culminated in their relegation from that division. Whereupon, he left for Second Division Southampton. Now aged 37, Bill was still capable of fetching and foraging but would get few opportunities to prove that in the first team, for whom he made but four appearances, all at inside-right. The fourth of those games, at Charlton in November, would turn out to be his last in League football, which he commemorated with a goal. He left, that summer, to play non-league football, back in Lancashire, until he was 40. After which, he became the licensee at the Stanley Arms in Bury.