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| Thursday 10th January 2008 | |||||||
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Left back revels in dream job The 19-year-old was released from nearby Coca-Cola League One side Yeovil Town in the summer. With hopes of becoming a Football League professional potentially dashed, he won a trial and then a short-term contract with the Blue Square South Magpies. Smeaton's fortune was joining the county-town side at the time they decided to go largely full-time in an attempt to achieve League football in five years' time. He said: "While it is not in as high a league (as Yeovil), to be seen by other clubs and bigger clubs you need to be out playing. "To be getting that experience at such a young age in senior football is superb. "The full-time training helps a lot and I am happy to be doing that because it is a dream job. "Playing regularly also enables you to figure out of lot of things you need to do to improve your game and work on. "That is what I have done and feel I have got better from doing that." Smeaton has had to fend off a lot of competition - Mark Jermyn, Nathan Simpson and Sonny Cobbs - for the left-back role at the club. And that was not helped by an injury he suffered at Sutton United in early September. "They brought in a few people and it was hard to get back my place," said Smeaton. "But now I feel a lot fitter in myself, back to full fitness and better than I did before I was injured. "When you are coming back from injury there is nothing like games and match fitness. "After playing a few games and working hard in training it has all started to come together." The introduction of Paul Compton as assistant to director of football Shaun Brooks has brought a sea change in the vibe at the club - it is now positive. Smeaton said: "Paul is very upbeat and will tell you how it is. I think he will do the club a lot of good just through his experience and the type of person he is. "He has a great knowledge of the game and I hope that together with Shaun he can finally sort things out, put things right and push on to where we should be in the league." Smeaton believes 2008 will be a more-settled year for him and for the Magpies. "Going into this league was always going to be hard with a new team and quite a young team at that," he said. "To start off with we were playing quite well and it was more the results that were not going our way. We were not getting the ones we wanted. "Now we have more of an insight into the league and I hope we can push on. It is a hard league to get out of but I feel we have the ability to push on and I hope it will help us, keep us going and, if it all possible, we can challenge for promotion. "Everyone is upbeat in training and the effort everyone is putting in is great. "I hope the results can start going the same way."
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