Matthew Smith (born 13 March 1997) is a Scottish

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

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Men's Premier Division (), also known as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Republic of Ireland and the highest level of the Republic of I ...

club

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

. He started his career with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

and made his first team debut in May 2016, and subsequently had loan periods with Montrose and Cove Rangers before moving to Ireland with

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club, commonly known as Pat's or The Athletic, is a professional List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the League ...

, Derry City and Shelbourne.

Early life

Matty Smith was born in

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 13 March 1997. He attended

Monifieth High School Monifieth High School, a comprehensive state high school in Monifieth, Angus, Scotland, was founded in 1976. It was opened by Lord Thomson of Monifieth. The school enrolls approximately 1100 pupils from a catchment area including Monifieth, part ...

. He played youth football for

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 ...

for seven years, prior to joining

Club career

Smith signed professionally for Dundee United in July 2014. He made his first team debut against

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

in a

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 ...

match on 10 May 2016. In January 2017, he was sent on loan to

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foo ...

side Montrose until the end of the 2016–17 season. He made his debut for Montrose in a 2-1 victory at home to

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

where he was also sent off. Smith was given a first team chance for Dundee United in July 2017 due to injuries to other forwards. He scored his first goal for the club against Cowdenbeath in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

, but an injury in training ruled him out of the subsequent

Dundee derby The Dundee derby is a football match between Dundee and Dundee United. The clubs are based yards apart in the city of Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland. History Dundee is the older of the two, having been founded in 1893, compared t ...

and for the next six weeks. His first league goal for United came in a 2–1 defeat at

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...

in February 2018. A 20-yard strike he scored in a 3-1 victory against Queen of the South was voted Dundee United's goal of the 2017-2018 season at the club's annual awards. On 29 May 2018, it was announced that Smith had signed an extension to his contract at Dundee United until May 2020. The club's manager Csaba László welcomed the news and commented Smith had 'shown he can be an essential player for us. On 15 August 2019, Smith joined Cove Rangers on loan until January 2020. Smith left Dundee United in January 2020 and signed for Irish club

. In January 2021 he was transferred from Waterford to another Irish club,

, where he would team up with former

teammate Billy King. He made his debut for the club in the opening game of the season, a 1–1 draw away to

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

in a Dublin derby on 19 March 2021. Smith scored his first goal for the Saints on 23 April 2021, heading home the second goal in a 2–0 win away to

Finn Harps Finn Harps Football Club is an Irish football club that play in the First Division of the League of Ireland, as of 2023. The club was founded in 1954 and elected to the league in 1969. They hail from Ballybofey, County Donegal and play their ho ...

Finn Park Finn Park () is a football stadium in Ballybofey, County Donegal in Ireland. The home ground of League of Ireland team Finn Harps, it has a 'safe capacity' of 4,200 with 351 seats. The first recorded Finn Harps game in Finn Park was in May 1954 ...

. On 8 August 2021, he scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season in a 4–1 win away to

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

Oriel Park Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey ...

. Smith scored in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

Semi-final on 22 October 2021 to give his side a 2–1 lead over

in an eventual 3–1 win to earn a place in the 2021 FAI Cup Final. A week later, on 29 October 2021 he scored his first career hat-trick, scoring a

perfect hat-trick Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection; completeness, and excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film and television * ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * ''Perfect'' (20 ...

in a 4–1 win away to

Longford Town Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of I ...

as well as assisting the other goal in a win that secured

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

football for his club for the following season. On 28 November 2021 Smith was in his sides starting XI in the 2021 FAI Cup Final, as they defeated rivals

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

4–3 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time in front of a record

Final crowd of 37,126 at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

. On 31 January 2022, Smith signed a two-year contract with Derry City. He made his career debut in European competition on 7 July 2022 against

Riga FC Riga Football Club, commonly referred to as Riga FC, is a Latvian Association football, football club, founded in 2014. The club is based at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Since 2016 Latvian Higher League, 2016, the club has been playing in the Latv ...

in the

but was harshly sent off during a 2–0 loss for an altercation with

Ngonda Muzinga Glodi Ngonda Muzinga (born 31 December 1994) is a Congolese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Vīrsliga club Riga and the DR Congo national team. Club career Muzinga has played club football for AS Vita Club and Dijon. On ...

. On 28 July 2022, he signed for Shelbourne on loan until the end of the season. After 2 goals in 15 appearances in all competitions during his loan spell, on 2 December 2022, it was announced that Smith would be joining Shelbourne on a permanent basis for the 2023 season. His first goal of the season coming on 10 April 2023 in a 2-1 win against Sligo Rovers. On 6 September 2024, Smith ended a 15 month goal drought when he opened the scoring in a 1–1 draw away to

with his first goal in 33 games. On 6 December 2024, Smith returned to

on a multi-year contract.

Career statistics

Honours

Cove Rangers *

: 2019–20 St Patrick's Athletic *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Shelbourne *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Matty Living people 1997 births Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Dundee United F.C. players Montrose F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players League of Ireland players Footballers from Dundee People educated at Monifieth High School Cove Rangers F.C. players Waterford F.C. players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players Derry City F.C. players Shelbourne F.C. players Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland 21st-century Scottish sportsmen