Paul Smith (footballer born 1979)

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Paul Smith
Personal information
Full name	Paul Daniel Smith
Date of birth	December 17, 1979 (age 27)
Place of birth	Epsom, England
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Nottingham Forest
Number	1
Youth clubs
1997-1998	Walton & Hersham
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2004 2004-2006 2006-	Charlton Athletic Carshalton Athletic Brentford Southampton Nottingham Forest	00 (0) 87 (0) 16 (0) 37 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 07:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Smith (born Epsom December 17, 1979) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Nottingham Forest

Smith started his career at Charlton Athletic but was released in the summer of 1999 after one year as a professional. After a short period with Walton & Hersham, Paul moved to Carshalton Athletic in late 1999 but moved to Brentford in August 2000 after they spotted Smith guesting for Crawley Town in a pre-season friendly against The Bees. At Brentford he made 104 appearances as a goalkeeper. In January 2004, to address financial problems at Brentford, Smith was sold to Southampton for a reported £500,000. At Southampton he was initially deputy to Antti Niemi but following Niemi's departure, Smith took over as their number one. However, he found himself further down the pecking order with the arrival of Bartosz Białkowski and Kevin Miller.

It is thought^{[citation needed]}that he was close to an England call up on their 2005 tour of the U.S.A when they faced Colombia and U.S.A., but instead Sven-Goran Eriksson chose the usual trio of Robinson, James and Green.

In search of first team football, Smith signed League One side Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee in July 2006. He has established himself ahead of Rune Pedersen as Forest's first choice goalkeeper for the club's 2006-07 promotion campaign.

According to Southampton's Official Website, Smith holds A-levels in PE, Home Economics, Sociology, Advanced Mathematics,Biology and Geography.

Smith once won a contest involving the throwing of the football from behind the by-line to land exactly on the corner of the six yard box. His accuracy was outstanding. Pavel Srnicek came second closely followed by ex Forest keeper Andy Marriott.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• Paul Smith career stats at Soccerbase

Nottingham Forest F.C. - Current Squad
1 Smith | 3 Chambers | 4 Gary Holt | 5 Morgan | 6 Breckin | 7 Prutton | 8 Commons | 9 Tyson | 10 Dobie | 11 Grant Holt | 12 Wright | 14 Lester | 15 Henry | 16 Clingan | 17 Perch | 20 Pedersen | 21 Curtis | 23 Agogo | 25 James | 27 Hughes | 29 Bennett | 37 McGugan | 38 Redmond | 39 Bencherif | Manager: Calderwood