22nd August 1964

[The Oldman]

Bobby Smith debut for the Albion and he scored 2.

(For the youngsters he was England & Tottenham centre forward but was snapped up by the Albion and was the equivalent of Michael Owen joining the Albion today)

 

[Andrew]

Good times.

 

[EastbourneGull]

Fee of £5,000 if I remember correctly (plus settling his gambling debts I dare say). I was there...Who did they play that day? Barrow?

 

[dougdeep]

Yes Barrow, we won 3-1. Great game.

 

[franks brother]

How many bobby smiths played for us?

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Bobby Smith debut for the Albion and he scored 2.

(For the youngsters he was England & Tottenham centre forward but was snapped up by the Albion and was the equivalent of Michael Owen joining the Albion today)

and had gambling debts nearly as bad as Owens.

Smith owed thousands to Brighton bookmaker Ernie Woodman and was persuaded to move so an 'eye' could be kept on him.

 

[Barrow Boy]

They let all of us schoolkids into the West Stand at the Goldstone after he signed and he came out and signed autographs and posed for photos with us.
He was real quality as was his old team mate Mel Hopkins who also joined us from Spurs later the same season.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

How many bobby smiths played for us?

It should also be pointed out that we were in Div so it would be like Owen joining, say, Notts County.

This was before my time but I believe the crowd was over 20,000, not bad for div 4 eh?

A few years later we signed another Bobby Smith (1968) who was a midfielder. One of those who did a lot of fetching & carrying and work that was unappreciated so often the butt of the crowd.