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Wilf Smith


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He was a pretty decent player; I think when he was sold to Coventry for £100,000 it was the biggest ever fee for a full back.

 

We had so many youngsters like him at the time, though....players like Ford, Eustace, McCalliog, Pugh and others....and none of them quite lived up to expectations for various reasons. Perhaps if they'd moved on earlier in their careers they might have made more of them but the trouble was we took too many down with us.

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started as a defensive wing half  when he came into the team ,switched to full back and seem to remember danny Williams signed the legend that was Harold wilcockson and moved wilf into mid field the season we got relegated ......think he played one game the next season before forcing himself a move to Coventry ......he packed up playing around the 30 years old mark for some reason though I do recall reading that he ran a successful business that made him a few bob . 

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9 hours ago, ash60s said:

I remember my sister getting signatures around school & youth club voting for Wilf Smith summat to do with

a competition in the old Football League Review that we used to get FREE with match programme

 

That was when they had a competition to vote for the best looking player. It ran for the whole season.

 

 

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5 hours ago, torryowl said:

being a saddo I can tell you who won ......George ley of Portsmouth 

untitled ley.png

 

Indeed you are right, torry.

 

However, I'm an even bigger saddo than you cos I can remember the FLR explaining that he beat George Best over the whole season by two votes.....two votes which actually arrived in the final post on the last day.

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Wilfred Samuel "Wilf" Smith (born Schmidt, 3 September 1946) is an English former professional footballer, who played in the Football League for six different teams between 1963 and 1978.

Born in Neumünster, Germany, Smith moved to Britain with his family when he was a child. They anglicised their surname from Schmidt to Smith at this time. He joined Sheffield Wednesday after leaving school, and captained both Sheffield Boys and England youth.[1]

Smith initially joined Wednesday as an apprentice in 1962, but turned professional with them in September 1963 when he turned 17. In all he made 206 League appearances for The Owls, scoring four times, before leaving to join Coventry City in 1970. He played 135 League matches in a five-year stay with the Sky Blues, but he found himself loaned out to both Brighton & Hove Albion and Millwall in his final season with the Midland club.[2]

He rounded off his footballing career with a 20-month spell at Bristol Rovers between March 1975 and November 1976,[3] followed by nineteen months at Chesterfield. He played a total of 432 Football League games, and scored nine goals during his career.

After hanging up his boots, Smith moved into retail, and in 1994 he was reputed to have become a millionaire through his off-the-field business.[1]

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Vastly underated player,Best once swapped wings due to Wilf giving him a hard time.

His game was solid allround,both going foreward and in defence,had a very hard shot on him as well,I once sat on the wall behind the net at leppings lane with two other lads v Man City in 69,and Wilf proper crunched one,Harry Dowd was clutching thin air and still diving as the ball really thumped into the net,the two kids ducked it hit the net so hard,ive never forgot that even after all these years........scored the winer in a tense game the previous seasons fa cup fourth round tie v Swindon as well,not quite a net buster that time,but swindon ran us mighty close,don rogers was a real threat all game.

Moved on after just 1 game,V Charlton,of the 70/71 season,Chelsea had a 100k bid accepted,but Wilf turned the move down towards the end of the relegation season,and he duly moved onto Coventry for a simular fee,where he opened a VERY lucrative DIY store that minted him,he retired early due to persistent knee problems.

It transpired later that Wilf turned chelsea down as they wanted him to operate exclusively in MF infront of Hollins,but Wilf wanted to stay at RB,and was a huge sucess at Coventry in this position,occasionally playing further foreward.

I got his autograph at the sheffield show back in 68,he was in the hospitality tent having lunch with his wife,Ive still got it

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On ‎05‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 07:39, Etchesketch said:

Wilfred Samuel "Wilf" Smith (born Schmidt, 3 September 1946) is an English former professional footballer, who played in the Football League for six different teams between 1963 and 1978.

Born in Neumünster, Germany, Smith moved to Britain with his family when he was a child. They anglicised their surname from Schmidt to Smith at this time. He joined Sheffield Wednesday after leaving school, and captained both Sheffield Boys and England youth.[1]

Smith initially joined Wednesday as an apprentice in 1962, but turned professional with them in September 1963 when he turned 17. In all he made 206 League appearances for The Owls, scoring four times, before leaving to join Coventry City in 1970. He played 135 League matches in a five-year stay with the Sky Blues, but he found himself loaned out to both Brighton & Hove Albion and Millwall in his final season with the Midland club.[2]

He rounded off his footballing career with a 20-month spell at Bristol Rovers between March 1975 and November 1976,[3] followed by nineteen months at Chesterfield. He played a total of 432 Football League games, and scored nine goals during his career.

After hanging up his boots, Smith moved into retail, and in 1994 he was reputed to have become a millionaire through his off-the-field business.[1]

that doesn't tally with what is written  by Dickinson & Brodie in the Wednesday boys book .......he was born smith , his father was an English soldier who married a german woman while serving over there after the war . he was christened wolfgang which they changed to wilf when they returned to England .

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On ‎03‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 21:47, torryowl said:

started as a defensive wing half  when he came into the team ,switched to full back and seem to remember danny Williams signed the legend that was Harold wilcockson and moved wilf into mid field the season we got relegated ......think he played one game the next season before forcing himself a move to Coventry ......he packed up playing around the 30 years old mark for some reason though I do recall reading that he ran a successful business that made him a few bob . 

 

Only Danny Williams could have taken one of our best players, move him into an unfamiliar position and buy a replacement from the Third Division. Perhaps simply buying a midfielder and leaving Smith where he was was too obvious? Though having said that Smith did look good there.

 

In the end it all became a bit irrelevant when Don Megson was moved on after the Scunthorpe debacle and he had to switch Smith back. He then came up with an even more stunning solution to our midfield problems by switching Gerry Young; another case of square pegs and round holes. And that too fell apart in the infamous Man City game when a clearly unfit Smith had to be subbed early and Young switched back.

 

God....the memories of that idiot Williams really makes my blood boil!

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2 hours ago, fredmciverslovechild said:

 

Only Danny Williams could have taken one of our best players, move him into an unfamiliar position and buy a replacement from the Third Division. Perhaps simply buying a midfielder and leaving Smith where he was was too obvious? Though having said that Smith did look good there.

 

In the end it all became a bit irrelevant when Don Megson was moved on after the Scunthorpe debacle and he had to switch Smith back. He then came up with an even more stunning solution to our midfield problems by switching Gerry Young; another case of square pegs and round holes. And that too fell apart in the infamous Man City game when a clearly unfit Smith had to be subbed early and Young switched back.

 

God....the memories of that idiot Williams really makes my blood boil!

i'm usually pretty decisive in my opinions on Wednesday but i'm buggered if I can decide who was worse Williams or burtenshaw ......

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On 01/12/2017 at 15:36, torryowl said:

think that was the foggy day at maine road when we won 0-1 with a peter Eustace goal .....good player smith 

I think that was my first away match my old fella took me if it was we scored late on because I remember we missed the goal and we played in orange/tangerine 

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On 24/03/2018 at 13:49, fredmciverslovechild said:

 

Only Danny Williams could have taken one of our best players, move him into an unfamiliar position and buy a replacement from the Third Division. Perhaps simply buying a midfielder and leaving Smith where he was was too obvious? Though having said that Smith did look good there.

 

In the end it all became a bit irrelevant when Don Megson was moved on after the Scunthorpe debacle and he had to switch Smith back. He then came up with an even more stunning solution to our midfield problems by switching Gerry Young; another case of square pegs and round holes. And that too fell apart in the infamous Man City game when a clearly unfit Smith had to be subbed early and Young switched back.

 

God....the memories of that idiot Williams really makes my blood boil!

Young might have had some problems, but as for being a square peg, if so this applied to his entire career at Wednesday. He started as a Forward, played centre and on the wing at various times, and only came into his own on the departure of Tony Kay to Everton. He was replaced by, Gerry Young, who went on  to win an England Cap in his best position as Left Half Back. Though he played in many positions in his career, there was always one thing you could guarantee - he would give of no less than his best., and his adaptability was superb.

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