Name: David Smith
Seasons Played: 1968/69-1977/78
Position: Outside left/midfield
Date of Birth: 08.12.1947
Birthplace: Thornaby-on-Tees
League Debut: 10.08.1968, Notts County (h), Div 4
League Games: 358+13
League Goals: 52
Career: Middlesbrough, LCFC, Rotherham United.

Dave Smith played more than 400 first team games for City in a 10-year spell at Sincil Bank making him third only to Grant Brown and Tony emery in the all-time Football League appearance list.

Initially an outside left, he went on to develop into one of the most skilful wide left midfield players for the Imps.

A player who on his day could beat almost any opponent he scored over 50 career goals and laid on many, many more chances for his colleagues during his decade at Sincil Bank.

Smith was a talented schoolboy player appearing for Stockton and County Durham representative teams and winning a place in the England Schools squad. He appeared for his country in a 4-1 victory against Northern Ireland in May 1963 but had the misfortune to suffer badly torn ankle ligaments that put him out of action for six months and cost him the chance of any further caps.

He had been on Manchester United's books but signed apprenticeship forms for his home town club Middlesbrough and graduated to sign professional terms shortly after his 17th birthday.

He spent four seasons at Ayresome Park but found his first team chances limited. After making his first team debut in an FA Cup tie against Chelsea, he made only a couple more appearances before deciding to join the Imps in the summer of 1968.

He went straight into the first team at Sincil Bank making his debut on the same day as Graham Taylor and remained a regular in the line-up for the next 10 seasons.

It was not until the arrival of David Herd that the Imps came close to success, narrowly missing promotion to Division Three in 1971/72 and when he was replaced by Taylor, the future England boss gradually put together a side capable of going up.

The team almost won promotion in 1974/75 when they fourth after the final Saturday's fixtures but still had a rearranged game at Southport to come on the Tuesday night.

Only a point was needed for promotion but City went down 3-2 and lost out by a tiny margin of goal average.

Twelve months later it was a completely different story as the Imps raced to the Fourth Division title breaking several club and Football League records in the process.

Smith missed only one game and scored the memorable 100th League goal of the season in the 3-0 win at Stockport County.

He stayed at Sincil Bank for two more seasons before he was surprisingly released by manager Willie Bell in the summer of 1978. He had a testimonial game against Watford at Sincil Bank early the following season concluding his career with a couple of years at Rotherham United.

After returning to live locally he was invited by a friend to become involved with Sunday League team St Hughs where he served as a player and manager for 10 years.

He was on the substitutes bench when the team won the County Sunday Cup in 1992 and he was almost 50 by the time he finally stopped playing. He also had spells at Boston FC and Stamford in the early 1990s as assistant manager to his former Imps team mate Percy Freeman.

Since leaving full-time football Smith has had a variety of jobs including running a pub in Rotherham, working on oil rigs, selling insurance and at the George Fischer works at North Hykeham.

Profile adapted from an original article that appeared in the official Lincoln City FC match day programme, season 2000/01.