Considered the best young goalkeeper in the Black Country, Ernie Steventon arrived at The Dell as an understudy to Bill Kitchen, whom he very soon replaced.

In his second season, of 1914-15, however, he shared the position equally with Arthur Wood. That competition was settled by the suspension of “official” football in 1915. Serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Ernie spent most of the War based in Blackpool, where he guested a few times. Although he began post-war football with Walsall in 1919, cataract problems that had started during the War ended his career before Walsall were elected to the new Third South in 1921. He became a bricklayer with his father’s firm, Steventon & Sons, well-known builders in the area, and joined the Board at Walsall in 1946.