Profile

Belfast-born inside-forward Smyth played for his home-town club Linfield before moving to Wolves in July 1947. His highlight was scoring a goal in a 3-1 victory in the 1949 FA Cup final vs Leicester. After four years, 116 appearances and 43 goals at Molineux, he was transferred to Stoke City where he scored 19 goals in 44 games for the struggling First Division club. He joined Liverpool when he was 27 years old. Smyth went straight into the team and made his debut on January 3, 1953, when Liverpool visited the club he had just signed from. But it was no happy return. Stoke won 3-1 and Liverpool lost their next two matches as well to give them an unenviable record of just three points from the last 22 and in very real danger of relegation to the Second Division. After just one league victory in 15 games, Smyth scored in the next three matches, all of which were won; and the seven goals he managed to score from 18 games were a big factor in Liverpool just climbing to safety by the end of the season.

But a year later, an even better strike-rate, 13 from 26 games, couldn't prevent relegation and the last of Smyth's 44 league appearances for Liverpool came on the final day of the 1953-54 season (a 1-0 defeat by Blackpool), by which time their fate had already been sealed despite a late rally which saw four victories in six games. However, a desperate record of only one win in the previous TWENTY league fixtures before that gave them too much ground to make up and the club's proud record of being a First Division club for nearly 50 years was finally at an end. After two years at Anfield Smyth returned to his native Northern Ireland. 

Other Clubs:
Distillery, Linfield (both amateur), Dundela FC, Wolves, Stoke, Bangor City (amateur)