Alf Smith (footballer, born 1880)

{{short description|English footballer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2016}}

{{Infobox football biography

| name = Alf Smith

| image =

| fullname = Alfred Smith

| birth_date = 1880

| birth_place = Longton, England

| death_date = 1957 (aged 77)

| position = Inside left

| years1 = 1901–1902 | clubs1 = Dresden Queen's Park | caps1 = | goals1 =

| years2 = 1902–1903 | clubs2 = Burton United | caps2 = 1 | goals2 = 0

| years3 = 1903–1906 | clubs3 = Stoke | caps3 = 3 | goals3 = 0

| years4 = 1906–1909 | clubs4 = Wrexham | caps4 = | goals4 =

| years5 = 1909–1910 | clubs5 = Crewe Alexandra| caps5 = | goals5 =

| years6 = 1910–1915 | clubs6 = Stoke | caps6 = 138 | goals6 = 67

| totalcaps = 142 | totalgoals = 67

}}

Alfred Smith (1880 – 1957) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Stoke.{{cite book|last=Matthews|first=Tony|title=The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City|year=1994|publisher=Lion Press|isbn=0-9524151-0-0}}

Career

Smith Initially signed for Stoke from Burton United in 1904, he made his League debut against Nottingham Forest in March 1904 but however he failed to impress the management team and left for Wrexham. Four years later, after serving with Crewe Alexandra he returned to the Victoria Ground, a much wiser and experienced footballer. In the 1910–11 season Smith scored an impressive 35 goals in 44 games for Stoke. Whilst he struggled to reach them highs in the following two seasons and scored 16 goals in 1913–14 and left Stoke after the 1914–15 season. He scored 72 goals for Stoke in all competitions making him one of Stoke most prolific goal scorers. He later took up cricket and became vice captain of Longton Cricket Club.

Career statistics

class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
rowspan="2"|Club

!rowspan="2"|Season

!colspan="3"|League

!colspan="2"|FA Cup

!colspan="2"|Total

DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Burton United

|1903–04

|Second Division

|1

00010
rowspan="8"|Stoke

|1903–04

|First Division

|1

00010
1904–05

|First Division

|0

00000
1905–06

|First Division

|2

00020
1910–11

|Birmingham & District League / Southern League Division Two

|41

31344435
1911–12

|Southern League Division One

|23

410244
1912–13

|Southern League Division One

|34

9213610
1913–14

|Southern League Division Two

|22

16302516
1914–15

|Southern League Division Two

|18

700187
colspan="3"|Career Total

!142

679515172

References