David Smith watches the Sky Blues Relegated
David Smith, a fairly regularly visitor to the Ricoh was the Association’s special guest at the Sky Blues last home game of the season against fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers last Saturday afternoon (21st April 2011). Unfortunately David was sad to see that our 2-0 defeat to the bottom club ensured this was also our last home game in the Championship for at least a season.
David is well remembered as a mercurial and tricky winger, star of Sky Blues sides in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Starting as an YTS apprentice for the Sky Blues in 1984 David turned professional two years later and had a baptism of fire debuting as a sub in February 1988 against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Dave quickly made his mark in the first team and as well as making many a goal from accurate left wing crosses for the likes of Keith Houchen, Cyrille Regis and David Speedie (all fellow Association members) he also weighed in with a few goals of his own.
In a total of 182 first team appearances for the team he scored 19 times before leaving the Sky Blues to join local rivals Birmingham City (effectively in exchange for David Rennie) in March 1993. David also had spells at West Bromwich Albion, Grimsby Town and Swansea City before retiring at the end of the 2002-03 season. David has continued within the football game and is currently Commercial manager of Grimsby Town FC.
As our special guest David did a media stint with BBC CWR as well as performing corporate duties around the lounges at the Ricoh during the game. He was also welcomed onto the pitch at the end of the first half to warm applause when he did the Club’s half-time draw. (Following this solo appearance members of the victorious 1987 F.A.Cup and F.A.Youth Cup winning squads came on to the Ricoh pitch to receive a half-time accolade from the 15000 crowd (to be reported separately). Thanks David for your contibution on the day and sorry you were here to see what was the worst possible result for the club! Encouragingly, even though the Sky Blues’ performance on the day was disappointing ,David felt we would be back up to the Championship pretty quickly. See you again next season (unfortunately) in Division One.
