Town boss Paul Jewell was delighted to see Tommy Smith open his goals account for the season in last night’s 3-1 Capital One Cup victory over Bristol Rovers and wants to see more of the same from his centre-halves as the season progresses.

Jewell has been impressed with Smith's partnership with Luke Chambers up to now: “It’ll be a different test for them on Saturday but I can’t ask for more than what they’ve shown.

“I think it’s important that our centre-halves, or anyone’s centre-halves, get goals because they go up for every freekick and corner and we’re entitled to get a bit more of a return than we have been.

“I think every manager will tell you the same, they need to be getting five, six or seven goals a season.”

He says he’s been pleased with the way they've gelled since Smith returned from Olympics duty with New Zealand: “Tommy’s done smashing, he’s a great pro. He’s only 22, he’s had a lot of experience at international level and he’s played 50 or 60 games for us. He’ll only get better and Luke Chambers has settled in very quickly.”

Jewell expects the weekend game against Blackburn to be somewhat different from the Bristol Rovers match: “It’s going to be totally different on Saturday, it’ll probably be ‘crash, bang, wallop’, that’s the Championship.

“We’ve got a very young team, our two midfield players, Massimo and Luke Hyam, I’m older than the two of them with their ages combined.

“We’ve got a young team, we haven’t got the biggest group in the world, but certainly I think you can see that we’re fighting for each other.”

Photo: Action Images

Karlosfandangal added 08:16 - Aug 15 I dont seem to remember Bobby Robson banging on about how young the team was when he put a 17 year old John Wark on the park with a 18 year old Burley, If your good enough your old enough. When does a player become settled or old enough. Tommy Smith is 22 and played 50 or 60 games so he must know what the Championship is all about by now same for Cresswell and Jet and even Hyam. The day have gone when you get a Cooper. Wark Stockwell, Burley makes over 500 appearances for club, Players like Smith and Cresswell will be lucky to get 150 appearance for the club before they are sold or move on. so the younger player have to settle quickly, the club cannot afford for them to take 50 or 60 games to come of age

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Garv added 11:02 - Aug 15 Smith has potential to score 5/6/7 from set pieces this season. All about the delivery though. Who is the designated set piece taker in the team at the moment? Martin I suppose?
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fussysnake added 11:45 - Aug 15 Smith has scored 7 goals for Ipswich and seems lethal from corners. Also Luke Chambers has already scored in a friendly. Two proven goalscorers from set peices :-D
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Ebantiass added 11:47 - Aug 15 Smith and the new lad from forest seem to be geling nicely and will go from strength to strength .
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Mark added 12:25 - Aug 15 Looking at the league stats, Smith has scored 6 in 64 (1 in 10.7) for Ipswich, and Chambers got 17 in 205 (1 in 12.1) for Forest. Those are pretty good ratios I think, and far ahead of Delaney who has 2 in 97 (1 in 48.5) for us. In fact, Smith's ratio is about the same as Priskin's at Town!
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