Adam Smith

Morning all...Occaisonal poster and serial lurker here.

For my sins i got dragged along with a few mates to see Millwall take on Villa in the FA Cup of Friday. On my way there i remembered that Adam Smith had recently gone on loan there. My friends spoke highly of him before the game, so i was interested to see how he got on against a Premiership side - ok yes i know its Villa but still.

Anyway, here's my thoughts on our right back, Adam Smith...

Not sure how relevant this is but the first thing you notice about him is that he is quite slight and short and because of this he looks younger than you would think, not 21 years old.

Back to the game - He started quietly and graduly grew into the game as it went on. Kept it simple with short accurate passes and brought his team-mates into the game as the match progressed.

The longer the game went on the more confident he seemed. He looked very composed on the ball. Calm and always looking for a quick short pass rather than just hoofing the ball upfield. He's got pace too and got forward well on a few occaisions and even had a decent shot on goal. Even after going behind 1-0 he still retained his calmness and kept Villa quiet on the few occaisions they threatend to attack by breaking up thier attacks and marking well. The only weak aspect of his game that maybe, due to his size/frame he gets held off the ball very easily. There were a couple of times he went up against Darren Bent but Bent was able to hold him off quite easily.

As the game ended my mates were again telling me how good Adam Smith was and how they'd love to sign him permanently. I could now see why as he was probably Millwalls best player on the pitch.

To sum up I would say he's got bags of potential and looked more than comfortable at this level. If he can toughen up a bit and learn not to get bullied of the ball then we could have a very useful player on our hands. He may lack the pace and directness of Kyle Walker but he certainly makes up for that with the other aspects of his game.