Fulham never saw the best of former Millwall, QPR ace: View | OneFootball

Matt Smith was a prolific goalscorer for the likes of QPR and Millwall, but he could not establish his best for for Fulham

Striker Matt Smith retired from football in August 2024, following an impressive final season in which he scored 24 goals in 46 League Two games for Salford City.

The former target man has left his mark on all three EFL divisions and it is a testament to his character that Smith enjoyed his most prolific season during the campaign which turned out to be his last.

The 35-year-old is one of the first players Football League fans will think of when they hear the term 'journeyman', and he established his goalscoring prowess for the majority of clubs he played for, but at Fulham, this was not the case.

Fulham never saw the best of Smith

Smith first burst onto the EFL scene with Oldham Athletic, then of League One, during the 2012/13 season, and he scored 11 goals in 40 appearances across all competitions.

Most notably, the striker scored four goals in as many FA Cup appearances for the Latics, including a brace against Premier League giants Liverpool in a third round in January 2013, as the Greater Manchester club defeated the Reds 3-2 in one of the greatest cup shocks in modern times.

Smith's goalscoring exploits against Merseyside-based Premier League clubs in the FA Cup would not stop there though, as he headed home an injury-time equaliser as the Latics held Everton to a 2-2 draw at Boundary Park.

Ultimately, Oldham went on to lose their fourth round replay to the Toffees with a 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park but Smith would have his say once more, scoring yet another of his trademark towering headers.

The forward's efforts with the Latics caught the eye of Leeds United, who signed him in the summer of 2013, and he adjusted to Championship life relatively well, scoring 12 goals in 39 second tier appearances during the 2013/14 season.

His performances in West Yorkshire were enough to convince Fulham, then freshly relegated from the Premier League, to sign him on 1st September 2014.

However, Smith was unable to hit the ground running at Craven Cottage and went on loan to Bristol City, who were in League One at the time, just two months later.

The former Oldham man would remain on loan with the Robins until March 2015 and scored 13 goals in 20 appearances, including seven third tier goals in 14 outings.

The Ashton Gate outfit won the League One title at the end of the 2014/15 season, as well as also claiming the EFL Trophy, and Smith played his part in both successes as he also managed five goals in just three EFL Trophy games.

When Smith returned to Fulham in 2015, the Cottagers will have hoped that he would display the sort of form he had found in the West Country, but this eventuality did not surface as he scored a total of nine goals for the club in over 50 appearances before joining West London rivals Queens Park Rangers in January 2017.

Smith enjoyed greater success with QPR and Millwall

After moving to Loftus Road, Smith scored four goals in his first 16 QPR appearances during the latter half of the 2016/17 campaign, before subsequently scoring 11 goals and providing a career-high tally of nine assists the following season, despite the fact that the R's finished just 16th in the Championship table.

The 2018/19 season, in which he scored six goals in 35 second tier appearances, would prove to be Smith's last in R's colours as he joined Millwall in the summer of 2019.

During his first season with the Lions, the forward hit double figures in the Championship, this time scoring 13, for the third time in his career, a feat he had not managed in his Fulham days.

Smith remained at the Den until January 2022, by which time his form had majorly dropped off, and he was ready to take on a new challenge with League Two Salford.

But while fans of Salford, Millwall, QPR, Bristol City, Leeds, and Oldham all saw the best of Smith, Fulham supporters never witnessed the striker's prolific ability.