| Arsenal's fine centre forward Alan Smith can see his brief England career summed up into three words - substitute for Lineker. The ungainly but deft-footed Smith, as prolific as any striker doing the rounds, was the man sent on by Graham Taylor in Lineker's place in the final 25 minutes of England's bid to progress in the 1992 European Championships, but Alan couldn't pose any threat to Sweden and England exited the tournament. Smith was just unlucky, as any striker could have been Taylor's choice, but the next day the newspapers were full of accusing diatribes towards the England coach who had substituted the nation's hero (alongside whom, ironically, Smith had started his professional career at Leicester) as he needed one goal to equal Bobby Charlton's record before retiring. As a consequence, Alan was unflatteringly described but in truth he was a much admired team striker. Form forced his way into the England set-up in 1988 when Bobby Robson took him to Saudi Arabia for a friendly and threw him on in the second half. He played three more times for Robson, twice as a sub in qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup, but he didn't score and in truth was never going to make the final squad as the token big striker, especially once Steve Bull made his burly presence felt. Smith re-settled himself into Arsenal life, never losing his touch, and in 1991 Taylor rewarded him with a recall for a 1992 European Championship qualifier in Turkey, which England won 1-0. Alan connected instinctively with a goalbound shot from Geoff Thomas to notch his first England goal in a summer tournament game against the Soviet Union (the photo above is during the 2-2 draw against Argentina in the same tournament) and later headed home the only goal of a nervy game against Turkey as England again won 1-0 and took a step closer to the European Championships. In the run-up to the tournament, Smith seemed to be competing with young Southampton striker Alan Shearer for the main target man role in the squad - as it turned out, Taylor took them both, along with Lineker and Nigel Clough. Smith started alongside Lineker in the first group game against Denmark, which ended 0-0; Shearer then had a go with Lineker in the game against France, and that too ended 0-0; and so along came the infamous substitution in the Sweden game. It may have ended Lineker's England career sourly, but it also heralded the end for Smith after 13 caps, two goals and a right to feel a little short-changed by the way he was marked out as an inferior footballer (he was far better than most would ever admit) simply because his coach decided to use him in an outgoing hero's place. None of the furore was anything to do with Smith and he's since had the class and dignity to keep his own opinions on the matter to himself. (Matthew Rudd) |