PITMEN ARCHIVES
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Club historian Dave Shaw delves into his extensive archives to honour names from the club’s long and illustrious past
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Stephen Smith
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Born in Abbots Bromley, 14 January 1874, Stephen Smith was to become the first Hednesford Town player to make the move to the highest grade of English football.
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Having played for Cannock & Rugeley Colliery, Cannock and Rugeley
Ceal FC, Steve joined Hednesford Town in September 1891. In those
days the home ground was ‘The Tins’ situated behind the Anglesey
Hotel.
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Aston Villa’s Fred Rinder took Steve into the ‘big time’ when he signed
him in August 1893 after he had completed his ten-hour shift as a
haulage machine operator at the coal face.
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Steve managed 15 games in his first season, scoring two goals from his
left-wing position. 18 goals from 31 in his second season led to his
international call-up against Scotland in 1895 – England won 3-0 with
Steve getting one of them. He also represented the Football League on
two occasions.
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In his Villa days, he was said to be ‘’an accomplished winger, very
tricky, who can pass or centre a ball with pinpoint accuracy and produce a stunning shot’’.
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His eight years with Villa brought 42 goals in 194 games for the club,
helping them to win the First Division Championship five times (189394, 1895-96, 1896-97, 1898-99 and 1899-1900) together with the FA
Cup twice (1895 and 1897).
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In May 1901 Steve moved south to help Portsmouth win the Southern
League Championship at the end of his first season. Then, between
July 1906 and May 1908, he was player-manager of Gillingham (known
at the time as New Brompton FC), scoring 5 goals in 71 outings.
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Steve lived in Portsmouth until 1932; managed the Roke Stores, Benson, Oxfordshire and died in Benson, 19 May 1935, aged 61.
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Steve’s son, Stephen Charles Smith, born in Hednesford 27 March
1896, played in the Football League for West Ham, Charlton Athletic,
Clapton Orient and Queen’s Park Rangers over a ten-year period from
1919, scoring 24 goals in 251 games. He died in 1980, aged 84.
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Stephen Smith
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Stephen Smith, seated extreme right, with his England colleagues
before the Scotland game in 1895.
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