"One of the toughest" - Exclusive: Paul Smyth opens up on leaving Leyton Orient for QPR | OneFootball

Paul Smyth has been speaking exclusively to FLW

Highlights

QPR winger Paul Smyth has revealed leaving Leyton Orient to return to Loftus Road in 2023 was "one of the toughest decisions" he's had to make in his career.

After a frustrating four-year spell in West London where he made just 23 appearances and played his best football out on loan, the Northern Irishman headed east across the capital to Orient in the summer of 2021 on a free transfer.

Injury issues plagued his first season in red and white but the 2022/23 campaign was nothing short of a triumph. Smyth scored 10 goals and provided four assists as Richie Wellens' side won League Two to secure promotion to the third tier – with the 26-year-old scooping the EFL Player of the Year at the London Football Awards.

Greater rewards were still to come as the Belfast-born livewire's expiring contract saw him offered the chance to return to QPR to prove himself – both in a Hoops shirt and at Championship level.

That meant leaving Orient, where Smyth had enjoyed the best season of his career and was playing with a smile on his face again, but it's a move that looks to be the right one with the winger featuring 45 times as he helped Marti Cifuentes' side avoid relegation from the second tier last season.

Paul Smyth reflects on Leyton Orient spell

It was not a decision that he took lightly, however, and speaking exclusively to Football League World, via Copybet, he reflected on one of the most important periods of his career.

He said: "I developed massively. I was really unfortunate at QPR when I was here the four years at the start, didn't really get my fair share of chances in the Championship, and I wasn't really enjoying it so I decided to make that move and try and go and enjoy football again, play with a smile on my face and be me again.

"On the way I did, I matured. I had my ups and downs at Leyton Orient. It was tough, but obviously getting promoted and winning the league was the highlight.

"Getting the move back to QPR was also a bonus because I got my chance back in the Championship and I got to prove to myself that I'm capable of playing at this level. That was what it was for. It was for me because I knew that I was capable. It was just doing it and getting that chance again."

Leaving Leyton Orient "one of the toughest decisions" in Paul Smyth's career

Smyth added that picking between the two London clubs last summer was "one of the toughest decisions I've had to make".

"I think it took me nearly a month, a month and a half, to actually make a decision," he explained. "So many people to talk to. Trying to figure out what was the right move for me. Would it be good? Would it be not?

"Leyton Orient and Richie Wellens did so much for me, brought me back to who I was again. He gave me the freedom to go play and be myself. I'm a winger who loves getting one-on-one with a full-back and just playing with a smile on my face.

"It was a tough decision. Obviously, family comes into it as well. QPR is only 25 minutes from my house, and I still lived in the same house as I was traveling to Orient, so I was, like, traveling two hours a day. Those were big factors in it, too.

"It was a very, very tough decision. I'm grateful for what Leyton Orient did for me but I just wanted to challenge myself in the Championship and I think I choose the best thing for me and my family. I get to see my little man grow up every day now. I go home after training, he's there and he's kicking a ball about, and I get to spend the rest of the day with him. It's not just spending an hour with him before he goes to bed.

"I'm glad that I've got my opportunity in the Championship and hopefully I can showcase this year what I can do."

Smyth's second full season since returning to QPR gets going at Loftus Road on Saturday as the Hoops host West Bromwich Albion in their Championship opener.