Soccer: Tommy gunning for top

Tommy Smith. Photo / Alan Gibson

Playing in front of about 80,000-100,000 people in Australia is a challenge. Going to a World Cup is a challenge. So is playing under Roy Keane's baleful gaze.

That's the reality for 20-year-old All Whites defender Tommy Smith, who plays for Ipswich Town in the English Championship league under manager Keane, the hard-bitten former captain of Manchester United. The famously aggressive and competitive Keane is still earning his management stripes and came under some pressure again with Ipswich's fall into the lower halves of the championship table this season.

Ipswich survived, however, with Smith starting most of the last games of the season - and it seems as if he has survived the inevitable cull as Keane looks to freshen his side for the next league campaign. Former England goalkeeper Richard Wright has gone as have defenders David Wright and Pim Balkestein, plus young midfielder Ed Upson.

Four more players - defender Alex Bruce, midfielders Owen Garvan, Alan Quinn and Colin Healy - have also come under Keane's keen gaze.

"Those players have all had meetings with him [Keane]," says Smith, "and they were all told that they didn't figure in his plans for the coming season. That hasn't happened with me - but he hasn't said I am in his plans either, so you can never take it for granted; never relax."

Keane certainly never relaxed in his career and Smith has enjoyed being under his management after returning to Ipswich from a loan spell with lower-division Brentford.

"He's a real stickler," says Smith, "very disciplined and focused and that's how he likes his players to be. Some people might consider those minor things but he expects a professional attitude from you all the time. You can't be late for training or anything because he fines you. As I say, some people think it's focusing on minor things but he takes everything into account when he watches a player. Training is always full on, there's no relaxing there either - it's like being in a match."

Keane as Manchester United skipper was famously hard on his colleagues, expecting them to give and care no less than he did in 12 years of being the beating heart of United's midfield. Apart from his infamous "prawn sandwiches" remark (aimed at United fans whom Keane felt were not supporting the club well enough) and his aggressive on-field revenge on Manchester City midfielder Alf-Inge Haaland, Keane reserved some of his harshest critiques for his Manchester United colleagues.

In 2001, United were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayer Leverkusen, with Keane blaming some of his team-mates' fixation with wealth. He said they had "lost the hunger that got you the Rolex, the cars, the mansion". In 2005, after a 4-1 defeat by Middlesbrough, he criticised the performances of John O'Shea, Alan Smith, Kieran Richardson and Darren Fletcher and told top defender Rio Ferdinand: "Just because you are paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar."

Smith hasn't witnessed anything like that at Ipswich but says: "We have had a couple of times when he's lost it in the dressing room but that's okay; that's what you want from a manager. All of us need a kick in the pants sometimes.

"I think he's good. He freshened up the club when he came in, when we were pretty mediocre. Unfortunately, we went through a spell when we didn't win a game for a couple of months and we ended up near the bottom of the table and there have been a couple of hairdryer episodes."

Smith says he has only had one match to assess All Whites' coach Ricki Herbert's style but summarises it thus: "He's a bit quieter."

However, Herbert wasn't quiet when it came to praise for the young defender who made his debut against the highly-rated Mexican team in March. With many picking a hiding for the All Whites against Mexico, the 2-0 loss was regarded as a satisfactory outing and Herbert said of the young defender at the time: "The back was always going to be an area under a lot of pressure and we brought in Tommy Smith, who's only 20, and I think he had a very good debut for us. Coming here in front of 90,000 against a team that's among the top 15 in the world was going to be a real acid test for Tommy, and I think he passed with flying colours."

Smith's composed and mature display at the back seemed to be a signal that he will figure highly in Herbert's thoughts when he comes to select his top team - even though competition at the back is tough with Denmark-based defender Winston Reid (rated highly enough to be chased by several Italian clubs) yet to make his debut and who will also affect the mix.

IF NO ONE knew who Tommy Smith was before the Mexico game, his arrival at the All Whites' camp this month has seen him explaining his New Zealand links, even with his English accent uppermost.

Born in Macclesfield, near Manchester, he came to Auckland when he was eight and played at Westlake Boys High School before being spotted by an Ipswich Town scout on holiday. He signed his first contract in 2006. Within six months the defender was part of the England team at the Under-17 World Cup but has since chosen to exercise his right to play for New Zealand under Fifa rules which now allow that.

Smith has been emphasising his New Zealand residence of many years, his connection to Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty - and he even knows full well about New Zealand-Australia derbies.

"I played in one or two when I played for New Zealand schoolboys. We played in Australia and we lost one game 2-1 and it was pretty intense, full on. It was one of the best games I've played in terms of competitiveness. It was pretty feisty.

"So I know what will be coming at us on Monday. It would be a tough game anyway but they are like us - they are organising their selections for the World Cup and they'll be out to show what they can do. They're calling it a friendly but it won't be very friendly at all."

In fact, Australia's Dutch coach Pim Verbeek has to trim his 31-strong squad back to 23 by June 1 - and this match will be a key factor in that selection.

Smith says he has not played against and does not know of any of the Australian players other than by reputation or seeing one or two on television. "But they are a good side and they'll be coming at us hard."

However, it is likely that all three of the Australian forwards that Smith will have to help mind tomorrow will be in Verbeek's final squad - AZ Alkmaar's Brett Holman, Celtic's Scott McDonald and the 6ft 4in handful Joshua Kennedy, now playing his football in Japan.

Australia's squad still contains many well-known players with impressive European pedigrees like: Mark Schwarzer, Fulham's goalkeeper; fullback and skipper Lucas Neill (Galatasaray) and team-mate Harry Kewell (who will likely not be risked against the All Whites as he recovers from injury); midfielder Tim Cahill from Everton; midfielders Brett Emerton and Vince Grella from Blackburn Rovers; and midfielders Mark Bresciano (Palermo) and Luke Wilkshire (Dinamo Moscow).

Their midfield alone will be a handful and Smith and his colleagues can expect to be busy. Perhaps the Australians do not quite exude the same sense of authority and danger they did four years ago and the All Whites are approaching the match with what seems to be a 'Keane' attitude.

Smith says his favourite English club is Liverpool - appropriate considering his name is the same as the '60s and '70s Kop legend Tommy Smith, also a defender and of whom iconic Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said: "He wasn't born ... he was quarried."

If he manages to put together a good performance against Australia and in South Africa, it won't hurt Tommy Smith the younger in his efforts to get somewhere near the career of Tommy Smith of Liverpool.

For now, he says, he's just focusing on the World Cup. But it won't do any harm at all if his performances look good to a Keane eye.