Bobby Smith (soccer player, 1953)

Bobby Smith
Personnel
Surname	Robert Nisbet Smith
birthday	December 21, 1953
place of birth	Dalkeith ,  Scotland
date of death	February 22, 2010
Place of death	Edinburgh ,  Scotland
position	Defense, midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1972-1988	Hibernian Edinburgh	152 (19)
1978-1986	Leicester City	181 (21)
1982	→  Peterborough United  (loan)	5 0(0)
1982	→  Hibernian Edinburgh  (loan)	5 0(0)
1986-1987	Hibernian Edinburgh	10 0(0)
1987-1989	Dunfermline Athletic	66 0(1)
1989-1990	Partick Thistle	30 0(1)
1990-1991	Berwick Rangers	26 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Robert Nisbet "Bobby" Smith (born December 21, 1953 in Dalkeith , † February 22, 2010 in Edinburgh ) was a Scottish football player who played for Hibernian Edinburgh and Leicester City in the course of his career .

Career

Smith began his professional career in the early 1970s with the Scottish club Hibernian Edinburgh . The team supervised by Eddie Turnbull was one of the top teams in Scottish football with attractive offensive football, and in the 1973/74 and 1974/75 seasons they took second place in the championship. After his debut in November 1972 against FC Arbroath Smith established himself in the episode initially in the left midfield. In 1974 he was with the Hibs in the final of the Scottish League Cup , where they lost 3: 6 despite three goals from Joe Harper Celtic Glasgow . After he was the team's top scorer with eight goals in the 1976/77 season , the safe penalty taker was increasingly used in the left-back position.

In late 1978, Smith moved to the English second division club Leicester City for a fee of £ 85,000 . The local coach Jock Wallace had previously worked in Scotland for the Glasgow Rangers and already became aware of Smith there, among other things through a remarkable equalizer by Smith in a 1-1 draw between Hibernian and the Rangers in September 1976. With the team the rising star striker Gary Lineker was promoted to the First Division in 1980 , Smith was the second top scorer of his team as a midfielder with 12 goals this season. After the immediate relegation from the First Division, Wallace rebuilt the team and Smith initially played no role in the further planning. He found himself on loan from fourth division Peterborough United in February 1982 and in November of the same year at his ex-club Hibernian Edinburgh . After he played only four appearances for Leicester in the season 1981/82, he established himself on his return from Edinburgh on the left back of the Foxes ; 1982/83 came in the renewed first division promotion under coach Gordon Milne to 26 missions and was also in the following two first division seasons to the regular players.

After he was only sporadically used in the 1985/86 season, Smith returned to Hibernian Edinburgh on a free transfer in October 1986 . In 1987 he moved to the Scottish second division club Dunfermline Athletic and was one of the top performers when he won the championship in 1989 and the associated promotion to the Scottish Premier Division , but his contract was not renewed because of his old age after promotion. Smith then let his career end, first in the First Division at Partick Thistle and then with the Berwick Rangers in the Second Division , before ending his career in 1991.

After retiring, he first ran a pub in Dalkeith before making a living as a taxi driver and settling in Tranent . Smith died of cancer in February 2010.

literature

• Paul Taylor, Dave Smith: The Foxes Alphabet - A Complete Who's Who of Leicester City Football Club . Polar Print Group Ltd, Leicester 1995, ISBN 1-899538-06-2 , p. 388 .

Web links

• Obituary on heraldscotland.com ( Memento of October 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Obituary on scotsman.com
• Profile in the database of neilbrown.newcastlefans.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Glenda Rollin & Jack Rollin (Eds.): Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2010–2011 . Headline Publishing Group, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-7553-6107-6 , pp. 1020 .