With Mark Crossley as his assistant. I always liked Smith when he played centre half for us. He scored quite a number of goals, too. I seem to remember him going bananas in the goals after scoring against Sheffield United in the 1990 FA Cup 5th Round tie at Bramall Lane. http://www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk/news/article/smith-named-caretaker-manager-2827163.aspx
Always remember his goal at Middlesbrough away 1990. Great backs to the wall performance and even had John Dennis clambering the fence celebrating at the end.
We had quite a number of quality central defenders playing for us that night when we secured our Division 2 status. The likes of Smith, Gerry Taggart, Paul Futcher, Carl Tiler.
A proverbial embarrassment of riches, the old 6,3,1 formation worked a treat strange that we were struggling with that quality in the team
He first came in on loan, with another decent player Brian McCord.. We'd just sacked a manager (cant remember who) Big Winnie was caretaker..
We sacked Allan Clarke and as he disagreed with the board's decision, chairman Geoff Buckle resigned. Eric Winstanley, after signing Smith & McCord on loan, then made Smith's transfer permanent for £70,000 (I think!) before Mel Machin was appointed full time manager. Machin signed McCord on a permanent basis from Derby in March 1990, but unfortunately he was never able to recapture the form he'd shown whilst on loan.
I wish Mark well. I found him to be a very friendly approachable bloke. In my coaching days I met Mark quite a few times on FA Coaching Days. These were 6 hour coaching session which the FA insisted grassroots coaches had to do as CPD to keep our coaching status. I went to one held at Rushden and Diamonds and was recognized by Mark in the players lounge as the delegates assembled. He remembered me from a day at Leeds. He came over to me and we got chatting and he took me over to where he was sat. Colin Walker, Chris Barker and Adam Sollitt were also there. Mark said he wanted to give something back to the game and help educate grassroots coaches. I also had the pleasure of playing at the side of him in phase play and some drills. Mark was at CH and I played RB. He taught me a hell of a lot about how to defend. Its only when you get out there with the Pros that you realize just how good they are. Playing in front of me for the other team was Barker. The first time I had the ball he was onto me in a flash and took the ball. After that I made sure the ball was away before he got anywhere near me. Barker was 19 and had only just joined the club. Mark said if I ever wanted to visit the academy all I had to do was pick up the phone. Unfortunately because of work commitments I wasn't able to take up the offer. Sorry for the rambling on it brought back some happy memories. I hope Mark does well in his new role.
