in a game against Hull City at Bloomfield Road, Spence suffered an injury serious enough that it eventually forced his premature retirement from the game. In 1980, he moved to Fourth Division side Southend United, helping them to win promotion in the 1980–81 season as champions. He scored 32 goals in 104 games over a two-year period. Between 1982 and 1986, Spence spent spells with Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam and Hong Kong clubs Sea Bee and Hong Kong Rangers (playing alongside international teammate George Best) before finishing his professional career with a second spell at Bury in 1986. He retired in 1986 at the age of 34 and eventually retired in Non-League football with Oldham Town in the North West Counties Football League. International career Spence won his first Northern Ireland cap on 16 March 1975, in a single-goal victory over Yugoslavia in Belfast. He went on to win 29 caps in total, scoring three goals. His most notable appearance occurred on 13 October 1976, when he came on as a late substitute and scored a late equaliser against the Netherlands in a World Cup qualifying game in Rotterdam. He ended his international career after discovering, via Teletext, that Billy Bingham had left him out of the 1982 World Cup squad. Post-football career Spence ran his own off-licences in Walmersley, Bury, Greater Manchester, firstly, and then in Hambleton, Lancashire. He eventually returned to his first love of football by setting up his own coaching school, Sportslink. Then in 1996 he returned to Blackpool F.C. as the club's Football in the Community Officer, succeeding fellow ex-Tangerine and Shaker Craig Madden, a role he fulfilled until 2016, when he retired. Personal life Born in Belfast in 1952, Spence was one of seven children. In 1970, at the age of 18, he had the option of staying in Northern Ireland and practise his trade as a joiner, or leave to try his fortunes in England. With terrorism rife in his homeland, he asked his father for advice. "He said, 'Well, if I were you, son, I'd get out.'" Spence is married to Lyn, with whom he has two children, Thomas and Erin. He also has two children, Leanna and Matthew, from his first marriage. Honours Southend United Fourth Division champions: 1980–81 Autobiography Spence released a book about the early part of his life and playing career in 2019. The title, From the Troubles