Belfast-born Spence started his career with Irish League club Crusaders in 1969, before making the short trip to England in 1971 to join Fourth Division side Oldham Athletic, signing his contract in a local pub to earn £18 a week.

[2] In 1976, Spence joined Second Division side Blackpool, and made his debut for the Seasiders against Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest on 16 October.

A serious injury kept Spence out of the entire 1977–78 campaign, which ended with Blackpool's relegation to the Third Division for the first time in their history.

Spence then joined Greek Alpha Ethniki club Olympiacos, where he made 21 league appearances, scoring six goals.

He then returned to Blackpool, who were then playing in the Third Division, for a fee of £27,000[3] and joined forces with Tony Kellow, who had signed from Exeter City.

Spence won his first Northern Ireland cap on 16 March 1975, in a single-goal victory over Yugoslavia in Belfast.

as the club's Football in the Community Officer, succeeding fellow ex-Tangerine and Shaker Craig Madden,[2][6] a role he fulfilled until 2016, when he retired.

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.