Denis Smith (born 19 November 1947) is an English former professional footballer and manager. He made 531 appearances in all competitions in 15 seasons as a player in the Football League, and as a manager, he took charge of 1,195 competitive matches.

Born in Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, he joined local club Stoke City as an amateur in 1964, making his first-team debut in September 1968. A hard-tackling defender, he soon established himself in the first team, playing in a centre-back partnership with Alan Bloor for much of his career. Stoke enjoyed one of the most successful periods of their history during his time at the club, as he helped Stoke to win the League Cup in 1972, featuring in successive FA Cup semi-finals in 1971 and 1972 and helping the club to successive fifth-place finishes in the First Division in 1973–74 and 1974–75. His bravery as a player meant that he also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most injured man in football. However, he was never able to fully recover after breaking his leg for the fifth time in his career in March 1975. He did manage to continue to play competitive football and helped Stoke to win promotion from the Second Division in 1978–79. He missed the entire 1980–81 season due to injury and left the club in May 1982.

He began his management career at York City in May 1982, having played for the club on loan the previous season. He led the club to the Fourth Division title in 1983–84, totalling five seasons. He took charge of Sunderland in May 1987, and took the club to the Third Division title in 1987–88, before getting the club promoted from the Second Division in 1989–90. Dismissed by Sunderland in December 1991, he took charge at Bristol City three months later. He steered the club away from relegation in 1992–93 but was dismissed in January 1993 after falling out with the club's directors. He was appointed manager of Oxford United in September 1993 and, although unable to avoid relegation in 1993–94, led the club to promotion from the Second Division in 1995–96. He switched clubs to West Bromwich Albion in December 1997, remaining in charge for two-and-a-half seasons before being dismissed in July 1999.

He returned to manage Oxford in February 2000 and helped them to avoid relegation in 1999–2000 before resigning in October 2000. In October 2001, he was appointed manager of Wrexham, who were relegated in 2001–02. He won promotion from the Third Division at the first attempt in 2002–03. Wrexham entered administration in December 2004, and the resulting points deduction saw them relegated once more. Despite the financial problems, he managed the club to the Football League Trophy title in 2005, in addition to two successive FAW Premier Cup wins in 2002 and 2003. He was dismissed in January 2007, months after the club exited administration. He married in October 1967 and has three children.

Early life Denis Smith was born in Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, the second youngest of seven siblings. At just three years old, he formed his own gang, stating in his autobiography that "if we wanted to play in the sandpit we played in the sandpit", and continued to lead his gang through junior and senior years at Sandon Road Junior School. Despite being involved with gangs since his early childhood he grew out of the culture by the age of ten, and as a teenager, formed friendships outside of his local council estate. He turned down the chance to sit the eleven plus exam as local grammar school Longton High was a rugby-playing school, and so instead attended Queensbury Road School, with whom he won the Stoke Schools Trophy; he also played for the Stoke-on-Trent Schoolboys (who were coached by former England international Dennis Wilshaw). At the age of 15 he became Staffordshire County boxing champion.

He was only at 14, but a late growth spurt took him to just under six feet and was, therefore, tall enough to play centre-back as a professional footballer. He was offered an apprenticeship by Portsmouth but turned it down as he wanted to sign for his local club Stoke City, who initially were not willing to take him on as an apprentice. They only allowed him to train with the 'A' team twice a week as an amateur whilst he initially worked as a plumber's mate, and later as a factory worker at Stone Lotus.

Playing career Stoke City Smith signed for Stoke City in September 1966 after telling manager Tony Waddington that he was going to sign a contract at another club; though Waddington was not keen on Smith's hard-tackling style, he did not want to lose the young player. At the age of 18 he faced Leeds United's FWA Footballer of the Year Bobby Collins in a reserve match, and despite Collins going as far as to punch him in the face Smith managed to last the entire match without backing down in an extremely physical contest. However, for a period, Waddington banned Smith from playing against first-team players in training as he feared Smith would injure one of his players. He made his first-team debut in the Football League against Arsenal in September 1968. He was given the task of man-marking Bobby Gould. He gave away a penalty after fouling Jon Sammels, which Terry Neill converted for the only goal of the match, but otherwise made a solid debut. However, in his second appearance, he gave away two penalties in a 3–1 defeat away to Ipswich Town and had to wait five months for another first-team appearance. In March 1969, Alan Bloor picked up a knock and Smith returned to the starting line-up in a 5–1 defeat to Leeds, failing in his task to man-mark Mick Jones, who claimed a hat-trick. Despite the poor start to his senior career, he managed to finish the 1968–69 season with 14 First Division appearances to his name and was occasionally used as an emergency striker.

Smith established himself in the Stoke defence in 1969–70, forming a centre-back partnership with Alan Bloor in between full backs Jackie Marsh and Mike Pejic. Smith was the aggressive and highly physical defender, complemented by Bloor who tended to stay further back and use his intelligence to read the game and clean up any mistakes Smith made. Smith claimed his first goal for the club on 17 September 1969, in a 3–1 win over West Bromwich Albion (West Brom) at the Hawthorns. Stoke reached the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1970–71, and Smith played in the fourth round victory over Huddersfield Town despite suffering from a fractured ankle. He scored the only goal of the match in the fifth-round replay away to Ipswich. He also scored a "freak goal" from a deflected Peter Storey clearance in the semi-final against Arsenal on 27 March 1971, but Stoke lost the replay four days later.

Stoke reached the FA Cup semi-final for a second successive season in 1971–72, again being knocked out by Arsenal in a replay. He had scored in the quarter-final victory over Manchester United and pressured Arsenal's Peter Simpson into scoring an own goal in the original semi-final match. However, John Radford was the hero of the tie as he played as an emergency goalkeeper in the first match following an injury to Bob Wilson, and then scored the winning goal in the replay. Stoke found greater success in the League Cup, beating Southport, Oxford United (after a replay), Manchester United (after two replays), Bristol Rovers and West Ham United (after three replays) to reach the 1972 League Cup Final against Chelsea. He scored two goals during the run but was knocked out whilst scoring against Bristol Rovers in the quarter-final and missed some weeks with concussion. He returned to play in the final, man-marking Peter Osgood in a match which Stoke won 2–1 to win their first major trophy.

Despite the cup success and arrival of new signing Geoff Hurst, Stoke laboured to a 15th-place finish in 1972–73. Smith blamed the car crash and subsequent injury to Gordon Banks in October 1972 as the cause for the club's mid-season slump, which compounded an already poor start to the season. Any concerns over relegation disappeared though with six victories in the final eight league matches. After a poor start to 1973–74, Waddington signed Alan Hudson in January 1974 to help revive the club's fortunes. The defence also improved, as Smith helped to ensure only two goals were conceded in the last nine matches of the season as Stoke finished fifth. On 23 February 1974, Smith scored the winning goal against Leeds to end their opponent's 29-match unbeaten run. Leeds went on to have a £250,000 bid for Smith turned down by Stoke in the summer.

Stoke made a push for the title in 1974–75. They also competed in the UEFA Cup against Dutch team Ajax, and Smith scored in a 1–1 draw at the Victoria Ground. However, Stoke would lose the tie on away goals. Smith scored the only goal of the match against Leicester City on 30 November 1974 to take Stoke top of the table. However, Smith broke his leg for the fifth time in his career making a red-card challenge on Mick Lambert in a 2–1 defeat to Ipswich on 18 March 1975; he was the fourth Stoke player to break a leg that season. Stoke ended the season again in fifth place, picking up just two points from their final three matches to finish four points behind champions Derby County.

He underwent an operation to remove cartilage in his knee in November 1975, and his recovery was not entirely successful. He later admitted that after returning to match fitness from the injury he was only ever able to play at "half pace". His long-term replacement was young defender Alan Dodd. The club also faced a major decline following a gale which severely damaged the Victoria Ground's Butler Street stand, and a lack of adequate insurance cover left a significant repair bill meaning the club had to sell Alan Hudson, Jimmy Greenhoff, Mike Pejic, Sean Haslegrave and Ian Moores to fund the repair; Eric Skeels and John Ritchie also retired. Waddington filled in the gaps left by these players with youngsters, and it also meant that Smith could continue to be a regular for the club despite his reduced mobility. Waddington was dismissed in March 1976, and new manager George Eastham failed to prevent Stoke from being relegated at the end of 1976–77. Following relegation Smith formed another good partnership, this time with Mike Doyle, which helped Stoke gain promotion in 1978–79 under new manager Alan Durban. Smith claimed his two seasons in the Second Division were "boring", as even with his reduced mobility few attackers in the division posed too much of a threat for him.

A pre-season injury kept him out of the entire 1980–81 season, during which time he coached the reserves. In this time he converted Steve Bould from a striker into a centre-back. Smith returned from injury in 1981–82, and featured regularly early in the season, and by the time another injury forced him out of the team, Stoke were in 18th place. He joined York City, who were struggling in the Fourth Division, on a one-month loan in March 1982. He debuted in a 3–1 home defeat to Hull City on 16 March 1982, and scored once for York, in a 4–2 loss away to Wigan Athletic on 2 April. Smith made seven appearances while on loan at York, and exerted his influence on the team by organising the defence; he commented that "They had been crying out for an older head like me". He was recalled by Stoke manager Richie Barker as the defence struggled in his absence, and Smith re-established himself in the team as they avoided relegation. He was handed a free transfer to York in May 1982. He said that if he had been offered a coaching role at Stoke he would have stayed, but that Barker wanted him gone as he saw him as a threat to his position. In total, Smith made 493 appearances for Stoke, a club record for a centre-back.

Style of play