Jay Leitch-Smith (born 6 March 1990), known as A-Jay Leitch-Smith, is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club Hanley Town. A graduate of the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, England. Its first team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' ...

, he played on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

for Halifax Town, Newcastle Town, ÍBV (Iceland), and

Curzon Ashton Curzon Ashton Football Club is an association football club based in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. Founded in 1963 and nicknamed "The Nash", the club is affiliated to the Manchester Football Association and currently compete ...

. He spent six years with Crewe, winning the League Two

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. He signed with Yeovil Town in June 2014 but moved on to

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

in July 2015 after a poor season with Yeovil. He finished as Port Vale's top-scorer before moving on to

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

in June 2016. He joined Scottish Premiership club

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

on loan for the 2017–18 season. He signed with

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

in August 2018 and remained with the club for three seasons. He joined National League side

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

in August 2021 and moved on to Warrington Rylands via Nantwich Town in 2022. He joined

Hyde United Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England, formed in 1919. The team's strip is red shirts and black shorts and their home ground is the 4,250 capacity Ewen Fields. Hyde United's record ...

for a brief spell on loan in March 2023. He rejoined Nantwich the following season before a switch to Stafford Rangers and then Hanley Town.

Career

Crewe Alexandra

Whilst on the books at

as a youth player, Leitch-Smith was

ed out to

non-League Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

clubs Halifax Town in November 2008 and Newcastle Town in March 2009. He signed his first

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

contract in April 2009, before joining Icelandic club ÍBV on loan. He was recalled from his loan, along with Chris Clements, in early September due to injury problems at Crewe. He made his League Two debut for Crewe at

Gresty Road Gresty Road or the Alexandra Stadium, currently known as the Mornflake Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Crewe, Cheshire, England. The home ground of Crewe Alexandra, it has an all-seated capacity of 10,153. History C ...

in a 3–2 defeat to Bury on 29 September 2009, replacing

Joel Grant Joel Valentino Grant (born 26 August 1987) is a former professional footballer who played as a winger. Beginning his career with Watford he made seven league appearances as well as spending time on loan with Aldershot Town, he later played fo ...

as a substitute in the 80th minute. This was his only appearance of the 2009–10 season. He joined

on loan in March 2010. He scored seven goals in ten

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

appearances, which was enough to win him a new contract at Crewe. He scored his first goal in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

on 21 August 2010, adding the final goal of the "Railwaymen's" 7–0 win over

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) *Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; anc ...

. However, he was limited to only 18 appearances in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season as he struggled to step up to first-team football, and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of the Academy, unt ...

devised a special pre-season fitness programme in the summer to help him to adapt to senior football. Leitch-Smith scored nine goals in 44 games in the 2011–12 campaign. He signed a new one-year contract in April 2012, and manager

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, DJ, electronic musician and author. He dominated professional snooker in the 1980s, when he reached eight ...

stated, "I'd like to think that he can become the 15 to 20 goal a season man we need." On 27 May, he played the first 85 minutes of the League Two play-off final victory over

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, providing the assist for

Byron Moore Byron Curtis Moore (born 24 August 1988) is an English footballer who plays as a winger or as a forward and has also been utilised as a wing-back. He plays for club Nantwich Town. A graduate of the Crewe Alexandra Academy, he made his sen ...

's goal which secured the 2–0 victory and Crewe's

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

into League One. He scored six goals in 35 matches in the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season. On 7 April he made another appearance at Wembley, as the Alex beat

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

2–0 in the Football League Trophy final; he was an 83rd-minute substitute for

Max Clayton Max Clayton (born 9 August 1994) is an English retired footballer, who last played as a striker for Altrincham. He has also represented England at under-16, under-17, under-18, and under-19 levels. Club career Crewe Alexandra Born in Crewe ...

. The next month he signed a one-year extension to his existing contract. However, he played just 24 games in the 2013–14 season, scoring two goals. He left Crewe after an eleven-year association with his hometown club, saying he felt like a "part of the furniture" of the club.

Yeovil Town

In June 2014, Leitch-Smith signed for

Gary Johnson Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th List of governors of New Mexico, governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republica ...

's League One club Yeovil Town on a two-year contract. He struggled in his first season for the "Glovers", as he was played mostly in a wide position. He only scored twice in 38 appearances. He was one of four players offered a contract termination by new manager

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

following Yeovil's

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

into League Two at the end of the season.

Port Vale

In July 2015, Leitch-Smith signed a 12-month deal with League One side

after agreeing to leave Yeovil. He earned the contract after impressing manager

Rob Page Robert John Page (born 3 September 1974) is a Welsh Manager (association football), football manager and former association football, player who was most recently the manager of the Wales national football team, Wales national team. In an 18-yea ...

during pre-season training. He scored his first goal for the "Valiants" on 14 November, with a header that opened the scoring in a 2–1 win at

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. This was to start a sequence of five goals in four games, which was the best scoring run of his career to that point. For his performances he was short-listed for the League One player of the month award. After scoring his sixth goal of the season in a 1–1 draw with

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...

on 12 December he was named in the Football League Paper's team of the day. He scored four goals in four games in January to go into double figures for the season to earn himself a nomination for the PFA fans' Player of the Month award for League One. Chairman

Norman Smurthwaite Norman Smurthwaite (born 8 August 1960) is an English businessman and former football club chairman. He qualified as an engineer and built a business career and property portfolio before retiring at the age of 50. He took over as chairman of Por ...

confirmed that Leitch-Smith had rejected the offer of a new contract from the club in May 2016.

Shrewsbury Town

Leitch-Smith signed with League One side

in June 2016, along with former Port Vale teammates Ryan McGivern and

Louis Dodds Louis Bartholomew Dodds (born 8 October 1986) is an English former footballer who played either as a midfielder or as a striker who is now a coach at club Congleton Town. After many years at the Leicester City Academy, Dodds turned professio ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in the first minute of a first-round League Cup tie against

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

, with Shrewsbury going on to win 2–1. After an indifferent run of form in

Micky Mellon Michael Joseph Mellon (born 18 March 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is the manager of club Oldham Athletic. As a player, he was a midfielder for clubs including Bristol City, West Bromwich Albion, Blackp ...

's last weeks as manager, he was recalled to the starting eleven by new manager

Paul Hurst Paul Michael Hurst (born 25 September 1974) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he was a left back from 1993 to 2008, notably playing his entire career at Rotherham United, bar a brief loan spell with Burton Albion i ...

for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

first round tie on 5 November, and scored the second goal in a 3–0 victory over

. He was limited to five goals in 12 starts and nine substitute appearances throughout the 2016–17 campaign, and was not allocated a

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to id ...

ahead of the following season as he was not in the club's future plans. On 31 August 2017, he joined

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

on a five-month loan deal. He made his debut for the "Dee" on 9 September, coming on as a 38th-minute substitute for Scott Allan in a 4–1 defeat at

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

. He was given his first start at

Dens Park Dens Park is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards (183 metres) away. History Dundee moved to "Dens" from the ...

seven days later, scoring twice in a 3–2 win over

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

. In January 2018, the loan agreement was extended to the end of the 2017–18 season after "Dee" manager

Neil McCann Neil Doherty McCann (born 11 August 1974) is a Scottish Association football, football pundit, former professional Association football, player and former Manager (association football), manager. He has recently worked as a pundit for BBC Scotla ...

was impressed by the link-up play he made with striker Sofien Moussa despite him being unable to secure a regular place in the starting eleven. He was released by Shrewsbury at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Morecambe

On 8 August 2018, Leitch-Smith signed a one-year contract with League Two side

; manager

Jim Bentley James Graham Bentley (born 11 June 1976) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He was most recently the first team manager at Southport F.C. Playing career Bentley debuted for Telford Unite ...

stated that he had "tried to sign him a couple of years ago." He scored six goals in 29 appearances for the "Shrimps" in the 2018–19 season, having missed the second half of the campaign with a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

tear. Despite only scoring six goals and missing half the season he ended the campaign as the club's top-scorer and went on to sign a new two-year contract at the

Globe Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as the Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; ), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockholm ...

. However, he was restricted to just eight league starts in the 2019–20 season before football was suspended in March due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in England The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England were NHS England and Public ...

. He played just seven times in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

promotion season, scoring one goal, and was released at the end of his contract.

Non-League

On 7 August 2021, Leitch-Smith joined

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

side

. He said that the attractive football played at

Moss Lane Moss Lane is a multi-purpose stadium in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It is currently used primarily for football matches and is the home ground of Altrincham. The stadium also hosts games for Manchester United's under 17s side, and ...

reminded him of his time at Crewe. He made just four starts during the 2021–22 season, though made a further 15 substitute appearances and scored four goals, claiming one assist. In July 2022, Leitch-Smith returned to his native Cheshire to join Northern Premier League Premier Division side Nantwich Town. He scored two goals in 16 games for the "Dabbers". In November 2022, Leitch-Smith signed for league rivals Warrington Rylands. He joined

on loan in March 2023. He scored one goal in five games for Hyde. Leitch-Smith returned to Nantwich Town on 11 August 2023, and made 11 appearances during the early part of the 2023–24 season, scoring four goals, before leaving to join Stafford Rangers. He left the field injured as Stafford lost 1–0 to

Ashton United Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of and play at Hurst Cross. Having been founded as Hurst in 1892, they folded in 1892, before being reformed in 1909. ...

Marston Road Marston Road is a road in the east of Oxford, England. It links London Place, the junction of St Clement's, Oxford, St Clements, the foot of Headington Hill (Headington Road), and Morrell Avenue by South Park, Oxford, South Park to the south wi ...

as relegation from the Northern Premier League Premier Division was confirmed. He switched to divisional rivals Hanley Town in October 2024. He featured 20 times in the 2024–25 campaign, scoring two goals, as the club suffered relegation.

Style of play

Though Leitch-Smith lacks natural athleticism and pace, he is an intelligent and creative attacker with good technical skills and a high

work rate In association football, work rate refers to the extent to which a player contributes to running and chasing in a match while not in possession of the ball. Work rate is generally indicated by the distance covered by a player during a match. An ...

. Former teammate

Tom Pope Thomas John Pope (born 27 August 1985) is an English semi-professional footballer who plays as a centre forward for club Kidsgrove Athletic where he holds the role of joint player-manager. A Crewe Alexandra Academy graduate, he turned profes ...

stated that Leitch-Smith was "one of the most intelligent strikers... in League One".

Career statistics

Honours

Crewe Alexandra *

Football League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leitch-Smith, AJ 1990 births Living people Footballers from Crewe English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Crewe Alexandra F.C. players FC Halifax Town players Newcastle Town F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja players Curzon Ashton F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Nantwich Town F.C. players Warrington Rylands 1906 F.C. players Hyde United F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Hanley Town F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players Úrvalsdeild karla (football) players Scottish Professional Football League players National League (English football) players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Iceland 21st-century English sportsmen