Paul Smith (born 2 November 1962) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager who is currently the assistant manager at

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

. Smith made his senior breakthrough with Raith Rovers in 1983. A combative

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 ...

, he enjoyed something of a journeyman career, encompassing spells with

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

, Dunfermline Athletic (twice),

, Heart of Midlothian, Ayr United and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

, where he was manager for seven years.

Career

After briefly being attached to both

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and Dundee United, Smith first joined Raith Rovers as a player in the season 1982–83, and the following year he was joined by Keith Wright with whom he struck up a potent striking partnership, Smith scoring 34 goals and Wright 25 in 1984–85; the following season Smith notched up 27 goals to Wright's 28. 'Smudger' as he was affectionately known as a player, was sold to Motherwell in the summer of 1986 and also had spells with Dunfermline (making over 200 appearances over two spells), Falkirk, Hearts(Hearts player) Paul Smith
London Hearts Supporters Club and Ayr United before moving to Berwick Rangers in 1997. Two months after his arrival at

Shielfield Park Shielfield Park is a football stadium that is home to Berwick Rangers and Berwick Bandits speedway team. Although Berwick Rangers is a Scottish Lowland Football League club, Shielfield Park is situated in the English county of Northumberland. ...

, Smith was appointed manager, a post he held until 2004, when he got the club promoted to the Scottish Second Division. He later performed the role of assistant manager to

Des McKeown Desmond McKeown (born 18 January 1970) is a Scottish retired footballer who played for Airdrieonians, Albion Rovers, Queen of the South in two spells, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir. He was also in the Celtic youth team but never played a ...

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; gd, Featha Thaigh nan Clach) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in ...

, until the pair's dismissal in November 2006. He later worked for Raith Rovers as assistant manager to

Grant Murray Grant Robert Murray (born 29 August 1975 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish former professional Association football, football player. Murray is currently the assistant manager at Queen of the South F.C., Queen of the South. His versatility saw him ...

; he had been assistant to

John McGlynn John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

when the club was promoted to the First Division, reached a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

. He was also caretaker manager at Raith following the departure of McGlynn to Hearts, following which he was appointed to continue the assistant manager role by Murray.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Paul 1962 births Ayr United F.C. players Berwick Rangers F.C. managers Berwick Rangers F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Living people Motherwell F.C. players Footballers from Edinburgh Raith Rovers F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. managers Raith Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Football League players Scottish men's footballers Scottish Football League managers Men's association football midfielders Scottish football managers

Career

See also

References

External links