Paul Smith

Early playing career

Smith was born in Epsom and made an appearance for his hometown club on the final day of the 1997–98 Isthmian League Third Division season. He continued his career at Charlton Athletic, but was released in the summer of 1999, after one year as a professional. After a short period with Walton & Hersham, Smith moved to Carshalton Athletic in late 1999, but moved to Brentford in August 2000 after they spotted Smith guesting for Crawley Town in a pre-season friendly against The Bees. At Brentford, he made 104 appearances.

Southampton

In January 2004, to address financial problems at Brentford, Smith was sold to Southampton for a fee reported to be £250,000, with additional add on fees totalling another £250,000. At Southampton, he was initially deputy to Antti Niemi, but, following Niemi's departure, Smith took over as their number one. However, he found himself further down the pecking order with the arrival of Bartosz Białkowski and Kevin Miller.

Nottingham Forest

In search of first team football, Smith signed for League One side Nottingham Forest for around £500,000 in July 2006. He established himself ahead of Rune Pedersen as Forest's first choice goalkeeper for the club's 2006–07 promotion campaign. In the 2007–08 campaign, Smith helped Forest gain automatic promotion finishing second in the league they were promoted from League One to the Championship. Smith had a good season and helped enormously in goal, making match…

Brentford

Football League Trophy runner-up: 2000–01 Nottingham Forest

Football League One second-place promotion: 2007–08 Southend United

Football League Trophy runner-up: 2012–13