The Pools 200 Club: Tony Smith

Hard but fair?
By Albatross
October 27 2005

In the second 200 Club article, Pools Online looks at Tony Smith - a defender from the mid to late 80s. He arrived at a time of crisis, and left at one too - but there were one or two good times in between.

Born in Sunderland, Smith took a long time to reach Pools; he started off at Newcastle, but made just two appearances in the Toon's disasterous 1977/8 relegation season before joining Peterborough and then Halifax. He arrived at Pools in the summer of 1984, and would be a regular for most of the next five seasons.

This wasn't the best of times for HUFC, and the 27 year old Smith came into a side that was struggling to say the least. We'd finished 23rd the previous season, which had seen John Duncan leaving and being replaced by Mick Docherty, who in turn departed before Christmas and was replaced by Duncan's predecessor Billy Horner. Patience was running out as far as re-election went; Maidstone were just 10 votes behind Pools, who were by some distance the least voted-for of the League clubs. An improvement was needed, and Smith was one of the players Horner hoped would do the business.

At 5'11", Smith wasn't big as centre halves went; but he could jump well enough to beat taller men in the air, had some pace, and was an excellent reader of the game. He would very quickly become one of Pools most solid and reliable players of the time.

He had something of a baptism of fire though, his league debut coming in the first game of 1984/5 at Stockport. Pools were no match for the Hatters, losing 4-1 - and failed to win in their first four league games as well as suffering a 6-1 aggreagate defeat to Derby County in the League Cup. Matters improved though, and Pools went on a nine game unbeaten run in the league from the end of September, with Smith even managing to score his first goal for the club in a 2-2 home draw with Hereford. By the end of the season he had made the most appearances of any player - 50 in all competitions - scored twice, and helped Pools avoid the dreaded re-election by two points in 19th place. 67 goals had been conceded in the league.

If 1984/5 had seen a small - if welcome - improvement, Smith's second season at Pools was to see the team perform dramatically better. With players such as Brian Honour, Nigel Walker and Alan Shoulder making their mark - and Smith doing the business at the back - Pools looked like real promotion candidates until a run of bad form in March saw them sliding back into 7th place by the end of the season. Smith played every game, chipped in with three goals as well, and other than the infamous FA Cup defeat at the hands of Frickley the side had had their best season for some time.

Sadly the form of the previous season was not maintained in 1986/7 - but once again Smith was a steady player in the Pools defence. We eventually finished three points clear of bottom club Lincoln - the first to be relegated under the new system of automatic promotion from the Conference - in 18th place. Smith scored what proved to be his only goal in the first game of the season - a draw with Cardiff - but played 45 of the 46 games. By this point he had missed just three games in three seasons.

Unsurprisingly then Smith was also an ever present in 1987/8. Another 46 league games, eleven in Cups, and he'd already played more than 180 league matches and over 200 in total. And one of those was a cup game that, unlike against Frickley a couple of years before, would be remembered for all the right reasons. The Sherpa Van Trophy saw Pools advancing in the Northern Section, and the Area Quarter Final gave Pools a tie against Smith's home town team Sunderland. He was an important part of the Pools defence that night at Roker Park that stood firm against the likes of Gates and Gabbiadini, eventually helping HUFC to a 1-0 victory and causing Denis Smith to make his infamous "Stigma" comments.

The League campaign saw Pools finish comfortably clear of bottom-placed Newport, without seriously troubling the leaders either; an improvement, but only a gradual one.

1988/9 would be Smith's last season at Pools, and in fact his last as a professional footballer. Although he once again started the season, and indeed played the first seven games, there would be no ever-present status. He was in and out of the side as Pools finished 19th under Bobby Moncur's guidance; and the man who had missed three games in four seasons played less than half of our matches that year. His 200th and final League appearance came on the last day of the season, a 3-0 defeat at Grimsby.

Now 32, he would have maybe been hoping for at least a couple of years longer - but Pools offered just a single year's contract. Smith weighed up his options, and decided it was time to get out of full-time football; he got a job with Nissan in Sunderland as an Analyst/Programmer, and continued playing part time with Newcastle Blue Star, who had just finished as runners-up in the Northern League.

While Smith's name may not necessarily pop up in a discussion of the best players ever to grace the Vic, he played an important role for us at a time when we were frequently at the wrong end of things. He was solid rather than spectacular, reliable rather than revolutionary - but especially over the four seasons where he missed a total of just three games, he showed himself to be almost a rarity in a defender - a player rarely if ever injured or suspended, and a useful player to have in the side.

Tony Smith
Born: Sunderland, 20 February 1957
Pools Career: 233 Matches (200 League), 10 goals (8 League).
League Debut: v Stockport County (A), 25/8/84 (Lost 1-4)
Last League Appearance: v Grimsby Town (A), 13/5/89 (Lost 0-3)

(Sources used for this article were the Pools Stats Site (http://www.poolstats.co.uk) and Gordon Small's "The Definitive Hartlepool United FC". Thanks also to those that contributed to a thread on the player on the former Monkey Hangers Board.)