History | Bobby Smith - from SW6 to an all-time Spurs great

Before modern day hero Harry Kane, before even the great Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith set the goalscoring standard at Spurs. A feared striker in the 1950s and 1960s, the giant Yorkshireman began his career at Chelsea in 1950, joined us in 1955 and became the first player to score 200 goals for the Club.

As we build-up to our latest trip to Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening (8pm UK), we take a look back at two of the biggest moments of Bobby’s career - the role of his father in overcoming early homesickness, and then swapping SW6 for N17...

Bobby moved from the village of Lingdale, North Yorkshire, to the bright lights of London and Chelsea at the age of 15 in 1948. He was homesick in his early days at the Bridge, and once caught the train back home. Thankfully, his father, Alfred, persuaded him to go back and stick it out.

In one of his last interviews with the Club, back in 2009, Bobby explained: "Once I got home, my dad said, ‘I'm going to take you back because if you don't go back, you'll realise what a fool you are'. He told me that I might win the First Division or an FA Cup medal. Everything he said was right.”

Bobby lived in digs with a couple of team-mates just around the corner from Stamford Bridge – Britannia Road – and impressed as a youngster in his first couple of seasons, but his progress had stalled with Roy Bentley banging in the goals for the Blues - Bobby played just four times in Chelsea's title win in 1954/55 - when Spurs came calling in December, 1955.

Bobby told us how his move came about. “Jimmy Anderson and Bill Nicholson came over to see me. I said I didn't want to go at first, but Roy Bentley told me to go and sign,” he told us. “Jimmy was the (Spurs) manager at the time, Bill would take over later. I appreciated them coming over to see me and I never looked back after that. Everything went right for me, and I thank everyone for that."

Before the ‘glory, glory days’, it's worth noting that Bobby scored the goals to take us away from a relegation scrap in his first season, 1955/56, before scoring 36 league goals in 1957/58, equalling Ted Harper's record set in 1930/31.

After that, the trophies. The championship and FA Cup double in 1961, another FA Cup in 1962 - Bobby scored in both finals, against Leicester and Burnley - and then European glory in the shape of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. By then, he'd formed one of the most feared striking partnerships of all-time alongside the great Jimmy Greaves.

Legacy Number #426, Bobby became the first player to score 200 goals for Spurs with a header against, you’ve guessed it, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 21 September, 1963. His final tally was 208 in 317 appearances, a mark overtaken five years later by Greavsie in 1968. It took another 55 years for Greavsie's 266 to fall, to Harry Kane, now top of our goalscoring tree on 280.

"When I moved to Tottenham I was a different player, I learnt a lot of things and working with the lads and Bill Nicholson, I really was on top of the world," added Bobby. "Every game was a sell-out. I never forget we played once and I came from my house (Bobby lived nearby in Palmers Green). I got to White Hart Lane with 25 minutes to go, but I couldn’t get any nearer to the ground because of the crowd. A copper had to give me a lift to the entrance. I got there with five minutes to spare and Bill went mad!

"It was a great atmosphere, I used to love it. I thought it was the best club in the world when we won the double.”

Bobby passed away on 18 September, 2010, aged 77 - here's his obituary...