Player Database: Richard Smith

By: Richard Hubbert
Date: 14/07/2002

For a player of Richard Smith's quality, 91 appearances in 6 years was simply not good enough. "Smudger" had experience in the Premiership and occasionally it did show, but still, he was an excellent player for Town and a very accomplished centre half.

To say he was injury prone though, would be an understatement. He missed the whole of the 1997/98 season through injury, half the 1999/00 season and made just 6 appearances in the 2000/01 season. Smith was a dogged kind of player - he was aggressive and was certainly not afraid to put his foot or his head in, whilst his amazingly long throw was unfortunately not used as a tactic by Buckley, but was occasionally seen in the Laws regime. Despite obviously not being fit, he played in the 2000/01 season and even managed to score! However, his various injuries were too much to contend with, and unfortunately Smudger retired in 2001 in a rather bitter fashion which saw him criticise the club that gave him support and contracts when other clubs simply wouldn't have taken the risk. One thing is for sure, and that is that if Smith had stayed fit that little bit more, he would still be a tremendous asset to the club.

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