Name:
Paul Smith

Position:
Goalkeeper

Born:
19 December 1979, Epsom

Signed from:
Southampton, 11 July 2006 (Undisclosed fee - believed to be £500,000)

Debut:
5 August 2006 vs Bradford City (City Ground)
Coca-Cola League One - Won 1-0

Outstanding young keeper who was Colin Calderwood's first signing in the summer of 2006, Smudge was recommended by Dave Watson, the goalkeeping coach who had accompanied Calderwood up the M1 from Northampton Town. He came to the fore at Brentford, was signed for £1,000,000 by Gordon Strachan at Saints, when they were in the Premiership, and by all accounts acquitted himself excellently when called upon to replace Antti Niemi.

However, when George Burley took over at St Mary's, Smith fell out of favour for some reason, and Forest were quick to pounce. Initial impressions are that we have ourselves a bargain, even at half a million in Division 3; three wins and three clean sheets to start his Forest career were highly impressive - a couple of brilliant saves to gain us a narrow win against Bradford City in his debut showed the fans his quality, and he looks set to be the best keeper we have had for several years. Still needs to work on his distribution, and his ability under a cross can be patchy - but then if he were the finiahsed article he wouldn't be playing in the 3rd Division. He is also still young, and 20 League clean sheets in his first season (behind a not-always impervisou defence) speaks volumes.