Tommy Smith (footballer, born 1945)

Thomas Smith (5 April 1945 – 12 April 2019) was an English footballer, who played as a defender at Liverpool for 16 years from 1962 to 1978.

Known for his uncompromising defensive style, manager Bill Shankly once said of him: "Tommy Smith wasn't born, he was quarried".

Smith was born in Liverpool on 5 April 1945; he was an only child.

His father died of pneumonia in 1959.

Brought up a Catholic, he stopped attending church after witnessing the local priest stagger out of the house drunk after he came to the family home to offer his condolences.

Smith joined the groundstaff at Anfield the following year, becoming a schoolboy associate of Liverpool, the club he had supported all his life.

Initially a centre-forward, he impressed manager Bill Shankly enough to bypass two of the club's four reserve teams to immediately play for the 'A' team.

He further made an impression in the 1961–62 pre-season when he beat imposing centre-half Ron Yeats to a header to score in training.

He turned professional in the summer of 1962, on wages of £18-a-week.

However he made no further appearances throughout the rest of the 1962–63 season, and did not feature in the 1963–64 First Division title winning season.

He made his debut for the "Reds" on 8 May 1963, replacing the injured Jimmy Melia in a 5–1 home victory over Birmingham City.

He married Susanne in July 1964, following a four-year courtship.

He scored his first goal for Liverpool in his second match, playing at inside-left in a 3–2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on 29 August 1964.

He kept his place for the following game, and again scored as Liverpool beat Leeds United 2–1.

He was returned to the reserves after two more appearances, before returning to the first team as a defender in a 3–0 win over Belgian side Anderlecht in the European Cup; after the match Shankly said that "The game marked out Tommy Smith as a fine player. The boy has arrived".

He ended the 1964–65 season with four goals in 25 league games, spent mostly at right-half.

He also played in every game of Liverpool's FA Cup run as they beat West Bromwich Albion, Stockport County (after a replay), Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City (after a replay), and Chelsea to reach the 1965 FA Cup Final against Leeds United at Wembley Stadium; Liverpool won the game 2–1 to lift the trophy for the first time in the club's history.

He played in the 1965 FA Charity Shield against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where a 2–2 draw meant that two clubs shared the trophy.

Liverpool then recovered from a loss and a defeat to Sheffield United in the opening two games of the 1965–66 season to go on a strong run of form that included convincing victories over West Ham United (5–1), Merseyside derby rivals Everton (5–0), Nottingham Forest (4–0), Northampton Town (5–0), and Blackburn Rovers (5–2); Smith managed to score against both Everton and Blackburn.

They went unbeaten for a total of 18 games from October to late February, and then lost just one of their final ten games to secure the league title with a six-point lead over runners-up Leeds United.

They had conceded just 34 goals, the lowest total of any team in the Football League.

Liverpool also reached the 1966 European Cup Winners' Cup Final to face German side Borussia Dortmund at Hampden Park, but Smith admitted that his side "lacked our usual edge and appeared disjointed" as they lost the game 2–1 in extra-time.

Smith played in the 1966 FA Charity Shield against Everton at Goodison Park, helping his side to a clean sheet and a 1–0 victory.

This would prove to be the last trophy for five years however, despite a good start to the 1966–67 season that included a 5–0 win over Leeds United.

Their form slipped in the second half of the campaign, as they fell to fifth place.

Liverpool were more consistent across the 1967–68 campaign, but ended up in third place, three points behind champions Manchester City.

They came even closer in the 1968–69 season, where a 0–0 draw with Leeds at Anfield was enough to win Leeds the title, whilst Liverpool went on to finish as runners-up.

Smith played once for England in 1971, and also played at club level for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Los Angeles Aztecs and Swansea City.

Smith was given the honour of club captaincy and led the team to the 1971 FA Cup final, which Liverpool lost to Arsenal 2–1 after extra time.

In 1972–73, Smith skippered the team to their first double success of the League and UEFA Cup, when they topped the league by three points over Arsenal and beat Borussia Mönchengladbach in the UEFA Cup final 3–2 on aggregate.

In 2008, Smith alleged his feud with Hughes started eighteen months prior, when he said in his autobiography that on 8 May 1972, Hughes told him that he had been speaking to a number of Arsenal players who were "willing to throw a match for £50 a man."

Liverpool subsequently failed to win the vital match at Highbury, which allowed Derby County to win the title instead.

Smith wrote that he was disgusted with what Hughes said and never spoke to him off the field again.

Smith maintained that the only witness was Ian Callaghan.

In November 1973, after Smith complained to Shankly at being left out of the team for a game, he had the big disappointment of losing the captaincy to Emlyn Hughes.

This resulted in Smith almost leaving Liverpool.

Earlier, Hughes had told Shankly to remove the captaincy from Smith and give it to a younger man.

When he returned, he was also moved from his favoured central defensive role to full back.

Although Smith eventually settled his differences with Shankly satisfactorily, a long-running feud developed between Smith and Hughes which led to some tension in the Liverpool dressing room, where the older players remained loyal to Smith and voiced their dislike of Hughes's chattiness (and parsimony in the pub).

A central defender for most of his career, Smith's most memorable moment for the club probably came when he scored Liverpool's second goal in the 1977 European Cup Final against Borussia Mönchengladbach.