Bernard Smith (footballer)

Bernard Smith
Personal information
Full name Bernard Smith
Date of birth 1908
Place of birth Sileby, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Playing position Left back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Loughborough Corinthians
1932–1935 Birmingham 12 (0)
1935–1939 Coventry City 56 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Bernard Smith (1908 – after 1938) was an English professional footballer who made 68 appearances in the Football League playing for Birmingham and Coventry City.[2] He played as a left back.

Smith was born in Sileby, Leicestershire. He played for Loughborough Corinthians, and after an unsuccessful trial with Derby County, joined Birmingham in February 1932.[3]

At the start of the 1932–33 season, Birmingham's regular left back Ned Barkas was recovering from an appendicitis operation,[4] so left-half Jimmy Cringan took his position. Cringan broke a collarbone in his first game,[5] and was replaced by reserve left-back Jack Randle, who played four games[6] before Smith, the second reserve, was drafted in for his debut at Derby County on 17 September 1932,[1] which finished as a 2–2 draw. This was the first of a run of games, but when the experienced Barkas returned to the side Smith could not dislodge him.[6]

Smith moved on to Coventry City in August 1935, and contributed to their Third Division South championship in his first season.[3] He played 56 league games for Coventry,[2] and retired in 1939.[3]

Smith is the grandfather of The Times' football journalist Rory Smith.[7]

Honours

with Coventry City

References

  1. 1 2 "Three League Clubs With New Players". Daily Express. 16 September 1932. p. 15.
  2. 1 2 Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  3. 1 2 3 Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
  4. "Hundred-Per-Cent. Football Test". Daily Express. 9 September 1932. p. 12.
  5. Rex (29 August 1932). "Injuries Mar First Day Of Football". The Daily Mirror. p. 18.
  6. 1 2 Matthews, p. 175.
  7. Rory Smith [RorySmithTimes] (29 April 2015). "Spent the day reading old newspapers. Found this, from 1932. Young Bernard is (well, was) my grandad." (Tweet) via Twitter.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.