PFA SCOTLAND SPEAKS WITH BERWICK’S ELLIOTT SMITH

Berwick Rangers full back Elliott Smith took time to chat to PFA Scotland about the season so far, future ambitions and his career both in and outside of football.

Elliott, how would you assess your season so far both from a personal and team perspective?

The season has been a bit up and down as I don’t really think we have put a decent run of results together which has been frustrating. We have also had the change of manager with Jimmy Crease stepping down giving Ian Little the opportunity to take charge.  We have been lucky to a certain extent as there has been very little disruption as a result of the change as Ian as been involved with the club for so long and had been taken training previously.

From a personal point of view it has been much the same in that I missed pre season training due to being in Canada for a couple of friends weddings.  I had to bide my time to get fully fit and back in the team which fortunately did not take too long.  However I suffered a knee injury aginst Peterhead last month and while there is suspected cruciate and medial ligament damage, I visit a specialist shortly and hope the injury is not as serious as this.

What are the ambitions for the rest of the season?

We have to be realistically aiming for the play-offs.  We have probably underachieved in the last couple of seasons and having strengthened again this season we have to be targetting a top four finish.

Can you give a background as to your career, both in and outside of football?

With regards football I signed with Hearts after leaving school and was there for a few years.  In my last year I decided to go on loan as opportunities were limited with full backs such as Robbie Nielson and Alan Maybury along with Stephane Mahe and Austin McCann at the club.  I went to Cowdenbeath and enjoyed the experience, one which prepared me well to continue my career after leaving Hearts.

I then signed with Montrose  and again had an enjoyable experience although the travelling involved eventaully became an issue and I moved to East Fife  where I lost a play off final to Queens Park.

The next step in my career was to move to Forfar and the two seasons there were fantastic with Dick and Ian Campbell making the club a great place to be around.  Once again travelling began to take it’s toll due to work commitments and I signed with Berwick Rangers as they train in Edinburgh- the injury aside it has been a good club to be at.

Outside of football, for the past six years I have been running a company called T4 Group which is a marketing agency specialising in Finanacial Services.  However at the end of last year I decided to move on and start up myself offering similar services.  I launched Nectre Limited on December 1st with a couple of friends and so far things have been going well.  We have moved to a new office in Edinburgh city centre and just employed our first member of staff.  We now have a team that can offer web design/develpment, online marketing, telemarketing and other services.

After full time football didn’t work out I always wanted to have my own business so hopefully things continue to progress as well as they have done so far.

Could you explain a little about utilising the PFA Scotland Business Partner agreement?

I have used PFA Scotland services a few times and have always felt a benefit from them.  Most recently I was put in contact with one of the business partners Mercedes to buy a new car.  Initially, it was just an inquiry as Stuart Lovell had mentioned that players could access some very good deals.  When I spoke to Mercedes Benz West of Scotland I was actually shocked at some of the deals available, and they took me through some of the cars available.  I then went on to visit the showroom to view an SLK and decided to take it.  I had bought a new car the year before and also know some of the prices other team mates have paid for cars and for the standard of car available and the price it is definitely worth players looking into.