David Smith (8 December 1947 – September 2022) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who scored 55 goals from 406 games in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing as an

outside left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, Lincoln City and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

Career

Smith was born in

Thornaby-on-Tees Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,741 at the 2011 census, in t ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

on 8 December 1947. An England schoolboy international, he began his career on

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

's books, but signed for

as an apprentice and then as a professional. He played only three times for that club in four seasons, and joined Lincoln City in 1968. He went straight into the first team, finished the 1968–69 season as the club's top scorer with 11 goals, Access to 1968–69 season details via Season Stats dropdown menu near foot of page. and remained a first-choice player for ten years. He missed only one game as Lincoln won the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

title in the 1975–76 season, and scored their 100th goal of that season. Released in 1978 after playing more than 400 games for the club, a total which placed him third behind only

Grant Brown Grant Ashley Brown (born 19 November 1969) is an English football coach and former professional player. As a player, he was a defender from 1988 to 2006, notably making 407 league appearances for Lincoln City between 1989 and 2002. He also p ...

and

Tony Emery Anthony John Emery (4 November 1927 – 5 November 2005) was an English professional footballer who played as a centre half. Career Born in Lincoln, Emery played for Lincoln City and Mansfield Town, making 428 appearances in the Football Lea ...

in the club's all-time appearance list, he finished his professional career with 43 appearances for

, then played and coached in

Sunday league football Sunday league football is a term used in Britain and Ireland to describe the amateur association football competitions which take place on Sunday rather than the more usual Saturday. The term pub league may also be used, owing to the number of ...

for many years. After retiring as a footballer, Smith had several different jobs, including running a pub, working on an

oil rig {{about, , the mnemonic OIL RIG, Redox An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling. Kinds of oil rig include: * Drilling rig, an apparatus for on-land oil drilling * Drillship, a floating apparatus for offshore oil drilling * ...

, factory work and selling insurance. Smith died in September 2022, at the age of 74.

References

1947 births 2022 deaths People from Thornaby-on-Tees English men's footballers Footballers from County Durham Footballers from North Yorkshire Men's association football midfielders English Football League players Middlesbrough F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players {{England-footy-midfielder-1940s-stub