If Ian Callaghan was the only Liverpool player to make the complete journey from the Second Division to the summit of Europe, then Tommy Smith wasn't far behind. Tommysigned professional forms for the club on his 17th birthday in April 1962 and was given his debut for a home fixture with Birmingham City in May the following year.
That was the only League game Gordon Milne missed that season and with Milne being an ever-present the next year (1963-64) in Smith's preferred right-half position, the youngster had to be patient and wait for another first-team opportunity.
His chance came in 1964-65 when he was picked for the majority of games during the second half of that season. But despite often wearing the No. 10 jersey, Tommy never was the inside-forward that his shirt number suggested, something which was to confuse foreign opponents who expected him to venture further upfield than he did!
By the end of that season - and only just past his 20th birthday - Tommy had become a regular member of the side and was present on the emotional day at Wembley when Liverpool won the F.A. cup for the first time in its history. For the next TEN years Smith was a fixture in the team. He only missed 41 out of 420 First Division fixtures and was able to claim the No. 4 shirt almost exclusively as his own.
Tommy shared in the remarkable success of the mid-60's but was young enough to survive the changes that inevitably came as the decade ended and Bill Shankly started to rebuild for the future. He saw in Smith the leadership qualities that he knew would help and encourage younger players and new signings. Six years after being the youngest member of the 1965 cup-winning team, Tommy proudly led out Shankly's 'new' team for the 1971 final against Arsenal. That day ended in disappointment, as did the following season when a borderline offside decision deprived Liverpool of the League championship in the final fixture.
But a year later those memories were banished as Liverpool won two major trophies in a season for the first time. The title was all but mathematically confirmed when Leeds were beaten at Anfield on Easter Monday and the following month Tommy stepped forward to receive the giant UEFA cup after a narrow aggregate victory against opponents who would soon figure in an even greater triumph for the Reds.
Smith was surprisingly selected for only one full international (against Wales in 1971) following his 10 appearances for the Under-23 side. But it was Liverpool who paid his wages and he never let the club down in the decade and a half that he was on their books, apart perhaps from the day when Shankly left him out of the team to play at Highbury in November 1973 and his reaction, although unprofessional, showed how much it hurt to be dropped.
Replaced by Emlyn Hughes as captain, Tommy moved back to right-back as Chris Lawler's Anfield career neared its end and after Shankly brought him back into the team a month after the Arsenal incident, he only missed one of the remaining 25 League gamesand collected his second F.A. cup winners' medal in the 3-0 win over Newcastle United, the biggest margin of victory in such a final since 1960.
Phil Neal's arrival threatened Tommy's place in the side but his versatility enabled him to cover either full-back position and also the centre of the defence. He was still a very valuable player to have around, despite by now being in his 30's. New manager Bob Paisley knew in any case all about his courage and strength and how intimidating he could be to opponents. Although he had a reputation of being a hard-man, his disciplinary record suggests otherwise.
He was a hard tackler and he did play with aggression but he could hardly ever be accused of overstepping the line which divides tough play with dangerous. As the 1976-77 season dawned, it looked as if his time at Anfield was drawing to a close. Phil Neal & Joey Jones were regulars at full-back and the young Phil Thompson was proving to be reliable in another position that Smith could cover with equal competence.
By March 1977 Tommy had only played three times in the League (all as a replacement for Thompson but way back in September) until Thompson was injured in a home match with Newcastle United three days after the first leg of the European cup quarter-final with French champions St. Etienne. Tommy played in the last 13 League fixtures, made his 4th F.A. cup final appearance for the club and also made the team for the European cup final in Rome.
Expected beforehand to be his last game as a Liverpool player, just playing in such a match in such an arena would have satisfied most men - but not Tommy Smith! With the final tensely balanced at 1-1 and with Borussia sensing their chances after Simonsen's equaliser, he moved upfield and met Steve Heighway's left-wing corner firmly with his head to send the ball flashing past Wolfgang Kneib. Neal's late penalty secured Liverpool's greatest triumph and the team returned to an extraordinary welcome and - as fate would have it - Smith's own testimonial fixture at Anfield two days after the final, at which the giant and coveted trophy was proudly paraded.
Tommy was persuaded to postpone his retirement and made another 32 first-team appearances in 1977-78 before moving to Swansea City, six months after his former team-mate John Toshack had been appointed as player-manager at the Vetch Field. Before finally retiring as a player, he helped the Swans out of the old Third Division on their meteoric rise from the Fourth to the First.
Smith can rightly be classed as one of most consistent and influential players ever to have been at Anfield. He made close on 650 appearances in all competitions and scored nearly 50 times. His historic goal in Rome will always be remembered before any other but he was also a reliable penalty-taker for a while until other players were called on to fulfil that role.
During his long spell at Anfield Tommy Smith won 4 League championships and played in 4 F.A. cup finals as well as the finals of all three European club competitions. Only Borussia Dortmund's bizarre extra-time winner at Hampden Park in 1966 and Liverpool's apathetic attitude towards the League cup in its early days probably prevented him from having a medal haul that no other British player could ever match.
After retiring as a player, Tommy looked after his business interests on Merseyside and later became a respected member of the Liverpool Echo's sports department until poor health and a bad car accident affected his journalistic activities. But he coped with those adversities with the same courage and determination that will always be remembered whenever he wore a Liverpool shirt.
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