Farewell to Feethams: Smudger - Mr Commitment

Kevan Smith was all of that plus much more.

Sleeves rolled up; determined not to let his opposing striker get a sniff; a tough cookie and a cornerstone of Darlington's successive title wins - ten years with the club in two spells saw Smith play his way into the supporters' hearts.

Smudger, as he became known after being christened by Clive Natrress on the day of his debut, as Darlington heroes go is up there with the best of them.

Including the year in Conference football, he made 440 appearances in a Darlington shirt, putting him fourth in the club's all-time record.

Ron Greener may have made the highest number of appearances and the most goals record may be held by Alan Walsh, but Smith achieved the remarkable feat of promotion on three occasions.

As captain in two of them, it is no understatement to say Kevan Smith is a Darlington legend.

He is the first to admit that he wasn't blessed with skill, nor was he particularly quick, but it was defending and keeping clean sheets which drove him on.

Brought to the club by Billy Elliott, he stayed for six years and left in the then Third Division having gained promotion from the Fourth in 1984-85 with Cyril Knowles at the helm.

During that last season came one of the club's finest victories at Feethams, an FA Cup replay win over Middlesbrough in front of over 14,000 supporters.

After an Ayresome Park draw, goals from Garry McDonald and Phil Lloyd were enough to take Darlington through.

"The two games were a really good experience," says Smith. "To go to Ayresome Park and get a draw, which meant a replay at Feethams, was great. We really believed we could turn them over at Feethams and Cyril did a great job winding us up so we were ready for the game.''

But Darlington went on to lose in Round Four to Telford after a replay. Smith played with his arm heavily strapped, typifying his bravery.

That he played the role of a losing Goliath that day having tasted life as David weeks earlier is typical of Smudger's luck.

Mixing the rough with the smooth seemed to go hand-in-hand throughout Smith's career, during which he earned a reputation for own goals.

"I scored a great header against Bristol City at home . . . into my own net. But then I went up the other end and blasted one in," he recalls. Even his big move to Coventry City almost instantly became tinged with heartbreak.

Having swapped Darlington for Rotherham, he then got a dream move to the top-flight when he signed for Coventry and manager George Curtis promised he would make his debut at Southampton the following Saturday.

The game was postponed, he turned out for the reserves days later and that ended in devastating circumstances.

He recalled: "We were playing Aston Villa and down there the rivalry is like Darlington-Hartlepool is up here, but we were winning 4-0 so they must've been a bit annoyed.

"I played a great ball from the centre-circle to Keith Houchen," he insists. "I was stood admiring it when I suddenly felt a pain in my leg. Mark Walters dived in from behind and that was me out for 14 weeks.

"From being the new boy at the club, I was suddenly injured long-term and forgotten about."

Following his indifferent spell at Highfield Road - six appearances in 18 months - he dropped down two levels to sign for York in May 1998, but after just a year at Bootham Crescent he was back at Feethams for life in the Conference wilderness.

"I only went to speak to Brian Little out of courtesy, but within two hours I asked for the forms so that I could sign there and then," explains Smith. "He was absolutely gob-smacked.

"I joined York at the start of the year and by the end the manager wanted me out because he reckoned he could get two players for the price of me.

"So I went to speak to Brian and just listening to him persuaded me it was the right move. It was a hell of a gamble to take and I had Cyrille Regis, Keith Houchen and David Speedie ringing me up saying I was being daft.

"But, as I told them at the time, I could see it was going to be a challenge and an experience and I believed in Brian that we could get straight back in the League."

In a matter of months Smith had swapped the profile being at a top-flight football club brings, as well as the always welcome mid-season golfing breaks, for life in non-league football with Darlington.

But despite his former teammates' concerns, along with the inspirational Little and chairman Richard Corden, Smudger helped spearhead the club's return to the Football League.

It culminated on one of the club's pivotal days: winning 1-0 at Welling to secure promotion on the final day.

Brian Little certainly thinks so, and remembers it as more important than the Fourth Division title win 12 months later.

Little said: "The game was tremendous and probably ranks over and above winning promotion from the Fourth to Third."

In fact Smith, recalls that Welling game as his most memorable from his ten years with the club, but another trip to the capital weeks earlier was just as crucial, if not more so.

He said: "The biggest and most memorable was the match down at Welling but the battle at Barnet stands out. We were in a must-win situation at Barnet and we absolutely mullered them, really got stuck in. Their chairman, Stan Flashman, came in our dressing room at the end and called us all thugs and hooligans."

Having played a major role in the 12 month non-league sabbatical, Smith then lifted the club's only Football League trophy: the Barclays Division Four championship.

But that was to mark the end of Darlington's ascendancy as Little took up the reins at Leicester and so an immediate relegation back to the basement followed under the leadership of Frank Gray.

Smith admits: "I still think back with puzzlement how one minute we were playing nice, attractive football and then the next we were playing collectively like a bunch of novices."

After Frank Gray, and then Ray Hankin as caretaker, came Smith's Scottish nemesis in the form of Billy McEwan. The pair never saw eye-to-eye which meant his second spell at Feethams came to an unsavoury end.

McEwan brought in Tim Park to replace Smith, who ended up training on his own and didn't play until February when he was brought back into the team for the final 13 matches, but they were to be his final games for the club as he left in the summer of 1993, signing for Hereford United.

"It was sad for my last season with Darlington to be like that," he admitted.

"People always knew I'd have my sleeves rolled, that I'd die for the cause and that I wouldn't shirk responsibility.

"I wasn't the most skillful, but I had the upper-body strength to tackle and fight with the best. I think, when you see somebody go into a meaty challenge it inspires the rest of the players in the team and I think I did a lot of that."

In the summer of 1993, Smith played his last game for the club; his testimonial at Feethams against Middlesbrough, but he's been a regular at Feethams in the interim.

He's since worked as the club's Football in the Community Officer and twice returned as Little's assistant when with Hull City, but he's often seen in the East Stand cheering on the team as a supporter.

"You can't stand still in football, but it will be sad when they move from Feethams, especially for me as most of my career was played there," he said.

"I spent ten years with the club and got a testimonial - you won't find many players these days doing that, especially in the Third Division.

"I never professed to be a great player, but I like to think I was a good player for Darlington. I was DFC through and through."

Perhaps one of Smith's lesser-known achievements was managing to knock a letter off the side of the Quaker Sports Centre, which stands on the west side of the ground.

"We all watched in silence as the ball went towards the letters and when it fell it got one of the biggest cheers of the season," he recounts.

"I can't remember which letter it was, it could've been the Q actually, but I do remember steaming into somebody and absolutely lashing the ball clear."

Some typically resolute defending with a mishap thrown in for good measure: Kevan Smith in a nutshell.

Read more about the Quakers here.