Denis Smith (footballer)

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Denis Smith
Personal information
Full name	Denis Smith
Date of birth	November 19, 1947 (1947-11-19) (age 60)
Place of birth	Stoke-on-Trent, England
Playing position	Defender (retired)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1966-1982 1982-1983	Stoke City York City	407 (49) 037 0(5)
Teams managed
1982-1987 1987-1991 1992-1993 1993-1997 1998-1999 2000 2001-2007	York City Sunderland Bristol City Oxford United West Bromwich Albion Oxford United Wrexham
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Denis Smith (born November 19, 1947 in Stoke-on-Trent) is an English football manager and former player.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Management 3 Managerial stats 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Playing career

Smith began his playing career with Stoke City on leaving school in 1964 and played 493 games for the club until hanging up his boots in 1982 having scored 41 goals. During his time at Stoke he helped them to League Cup victory in 1972. Many Stoke fans consider him to be amongst their true greats, a local legend. Smith has often declined a return to Stoke as a manager.

[edit] Management

He moved into management with York City after ending his playing career and in January 1985 guided the Third Division club to a famous victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup Fourth Round. In the next round York drew 1-1 at home with Liverpool, before narrowly losing 7-0 away at Anfield. The previous season, under Smith's guidance York became the first English club to reach 100 points when they romped away with the Fourth Division Championship. He remained at Bootham Crescent until the summer of 1987 when he moved to Sunderland who had just been relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history. This was a surprise choice to many York fans as Smith had been lucky to keep his job that season as York finished one place above relegation.

In his first season at Sunderland he guided them to the Third Division championship and promotion with a record 101 points. They achieved a top-half finish in the 1988–1989 Second Division campaign and reaching the playoff final in 1989–1990. They lost 1–0 to Swindon Town but were promoted a month later when Swindon were found guilty of financial irregularities and remained in the Second Division. Sunderland struggled throughout 1990–1991 and their battle against relegation from the First Division was lost on the last day of the season. Smith's side performed inconsistently on their return to the Second Division and with the team struggling near the foot of the table, he was sacked at the end of December 1991. He was replaced by Malcolm Crosby (initially on a 'caretaker' basis) and Sunderland subsequently reached that season's FA Cup Final where they lost to Liverpool.

Smith was soon back in the game as manager of Bristol City in the new Division One. But the club never looked like gaining promotion to the new FA Premier League and Denis Smith resigned in May 1993. He made a return to management with Oxford United the following October but was unable to save them from relegation to Division Two.

In 1994–1995, Oxford United just missed out on the Division Two playoffs but in 1995–1996 were promoted back to Division One as runners-up of Division Two. They achieved a mid-table finish in the 1996–1997 Division One campaign but Smith resigned the following December with the club £10 million in debt—a financial crisis which lasted until the end of 2000–2001, by which time the club had been relegated to Division Three.

Smith was appointed manager of West Bromwich Albion two days before Christmas in 1997. He could only guide Albion to two mid-table finishes in Division One and was sacked in July 1999.

In February 2000, Denis Smith was appointed manager of Oxford United for the second time in seven years. He saved the club from relegation to Division Three but resigned after a terrible start to 2000–2001, a season which ended in Oxford getting relegated.^[1]

Smith made his return to management in October 2001 with Wrexham, replacing Brian Flynn who had resigned after 12 years in charge. He was unable to save the club from relegation to Division Three and his task for restoring the club's fortunes was made all the harder by the collapse of ITV Digital which left Wrexham with virtually no funds for buying new players with. But he proved all the odds wrong at the end of the 2002–03 season, when Wrexham finished third in Division Three and claimed the last automatic promotion place to Division Two. As credit for his achievements he won the League Managers Association Manager of the Year Award for the second time in his managerial career — he had won it 19 years earlier when guiding York City to the Fourth Division championship in 1984.

The 2004-05 season was extremely difficult for Wrexham, thanks to behind the scenes manoeuverings by club chairman Alex Hamilton who was trying to evict the club from its ground (now owned by another of his companies), and the club was placed in Administration to escape its creditors, becoming the first club to suffer a consequential deduction of ten points, which saw the club relegated at the end of the season. Despite having to operate a hand-to-mouth cash-only existence, Smith still managed to take Wrexham to victory in the LDV Vans Trophy. Wrexham's finances were still causing difficulty in 2005-06, and Smith was unable to guide the club to anything more than a mid table finish. With Wrexham hovering above the relegation zone, Smith and assistant Kevin Russell were sacked in January 2007.^[2]

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
York City		May 15, 1982	June 9, 1987	258	120	79	59	46.51
Sunderland		June 9, 1987	December 30, 1991	229	87	79	63	37.99
Bristol City		March 9, 1992	February 21, 1993	48	15	21	12	31.25
Oxford United		September 10, 1993	December 24, 1997	240	96	85	59	40.00
West Bromwich Albion		January 1, 1998	July 27, 1999	72	22	31	19	30.55
Oxford United		February 3, 2000	October 2, 2000	30	8	19	3	26.66
Wrexham		October 8, 2001	January 11, 2007	278	101	109	68	36.33

[edit] References

1. ^ "Smith quits as Oxford boss", BBC Sport article, 2000-10-02. Retrieved on 2007-04-27. 
2. ^ Smith and Russell depart Wrexham

[edit] External links

• Denis Smith management career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e York City F.C. – Managers Collier (1928–30) • Sherrington (1930–33) • Collier (1933–37) • Mitchell (1937–50) • Duckworth (1950–52) • Spencer (1952–53) • McCormick (1953–54) • Bartram (1956–60) • Lockie (1960–67) • Shaw (1967–68) • Johnston (1968–75) • McGuinness (1975–77) • Wright (1977–80) • Lyons (1980–81) • Randall (1981–82) • Swallow (1982) • Smith (1982–87) • Saxton (1987–88) • Swallow (1988) • Bird (1988–91) • Ward (1991–93) • Little (1993–99) • Thompson (1999–2000) • Dolan (2000–03) • Brass (2003–04) • Busby (2004–05) • McEwan (2005–07) • Walker (2007–)

v • d • e Sunderland A.F.C. – Managers Watson (1888–96) • Campbell (1896–99) • Mackie (1899–1905) • Kyle (1905–28) • Cochrane (1928–39) • Murray (1939–57) • Brown (1957–64) • Hardwick (1964–65) • McColl (1965–68) • Brown (1968–72) • Stokoe (1972–76) • Adamson (1976–78) • Knighton (1979–81) • Durban (1981–84) • Robson (1984) • Ashurst (1984–85) • McMenemy (1985–87) • Smith (1987–91) • Crosby (1991–93) • Butcher (1993) • Buxton (1993–95) • Reid (1995–2002) • Wilkinson (2002–03) • McCarthy (2003–06) • Keane (2006–)

v • d • e Bristol City F.C. – Managers Hollis (1897–99) • Campbell (1899–1901) • Hollis (1901–05) • Thickett (1905–10) • Bacon (1910–11) • Hollis (1911–13) • Hedley (1913–15) • Hamilton (1915–19) • Palmer (1919–21) • Raisbeck (1921–29) • Bradshaw (1929–32) • Hewison (1932–49) • Wright (1949–50) • Beasley (1950–58) • Doherty (1958–60) • Ford (1960–67) • Dicks (1967–80) • Houghton (1980–82) • Hodgson (1982) • Cooper (1982–88) • Jordan (1988–90) • Lumsden (1990–92) • Smith (1992–93) • Osman (1993–94) • Jordan (1994–97) • Sweeney (1997) • Ward (1997–98) • Lennartsson (1998–99) • Pulis (1999–2000) • Fawthrop & Burnside (2000) • Rosenior (2000) • Wilson (2000–04) • Tinnion (2004–05) • Millen (2005) • Johnson (2005–)

v • d • e Oxford United F.C. – Managers Thompson (1949–58) • Turner (1959–69) • Saunders (1969) • Summers (1969–75) • Brown (1975–79) • Asprey (1979–80) • Greaves (1980–82) • J. Smith (1982–85) • Evans (1985–88) • Lawrenson (1988) • Horton (1988–93) • D. Smith (1993–97) • Shotton (1998–99) • D. Smith (2000) • Kemp (2000–01) • Wright (2001) • Atkins (2001–04) • Rix (2004) • Díaz (2004–05) • Talbot (2005–06) • J. Smith (2006–07) • Patterson (2007–)

v • d • e West Bromwich Albion F.C. – Managers Ford (1890–92) • Jackson (1892–94) • Stephenson (1894–95) • Keys (1895–96) • Heaven (1896–1902) • Everiss (1902–48) • J. Smith (1948–52) • Carver (1952–53) • Buckingham (1953–59) • Clark (1959–61) • Macaulay (1961–63) • Hagan (1963–67) • Ashman (1967–71) • Howe (1971–75) • Giles (1975–77) • Allen (1977) • Atkinson (1978–81) • Allen (1981–82) • Wylie (1982–84) • Giles (1984–85) • Stiles (1985–86) • Saunders (1986–87) • Atkinson (1987–88) • Talbot (1988–91) • Gould (1991–92) • Ardiles (1992–93) • Burkinshaw (1993–94) • Buckley (1994–97) • Harford (1997) • D. Smith (1997–99) • Little (1999–2000) • Megson (2000–04) • Robson (2004–06) • Mowbray (2006–)

v • d • e Wrexham F.C. – Managers Robinson (1912–24) • Hewitt (1924–29) • Baynes (1929–31) • Blackburn (1932–37) • Logan (1937–38) • Morgan (1938–40) • Cowell (1938) • Williams (1940–49) • McDowall (1949–50) • Jackson (1950–54) • Lloyd (1954–57) • Love (1957–59) • Lloyd (1959–60) • Morris (1960–61) • Barnes (1961–65) • Morris (1965) • Rowley (1966–67) • Williams (1967–68) • Neal (1968–77) • Griffiths (1977–81) • Sutton (1981–82) • Roberts (1982–85) • McNeil (1985–89) • Flynn (1989–2001) • Jones (2001) • Smith (2001–07) • Carey (2007) • Little (2007–)

Persondata
NAME	Smith, Denis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer, football manager
DATE OF BIRTH	November 19, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stoke-on-Trent, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH