Towards the end of his career, he turned out for non-league side Altrincham in the early 1980s, when they were competing in the Alliance Premier League (which became the Football Conference in 1986). He helped them win the Alliance Premier League title in 1980–81 (they had won it the 1979–80 season as well), but they did not win promotion to the Football League as the re-election system was still in place and the majority of the league's members voting against them joining the Football League, ending Stepney's hopes of a professional comeback.