Moment Michael Smith was humiliated by Portsmouth fans can help drag Sheffield Wednesday to promotion

That’s not something that Sheffield Wednesday players have had to experienced in a record-breaking season and any notion of a turn to the toxic seems a million miles away even considering the nervous, white-knuckle nature of what’s left of the League One promotion scrap.

But it’s an experience most players of a certain age will have tucked under their belt at one moment or other in their career; be that as a Wednesday player or elsewhere.

For Michael Smith, things got about as toxic as you can imagine in January 2017. With Paul Cook under pressure as Portsmouth manager and having caved to the fans’ hankering for a switch to a 4-4-2 formation, Exeter City opened the scoring at Fratton Park.

Within 90 seconds, Cook hooked Smith – already a player that had become something of a target for Pompey’s passionate fanbase as he struggled to provide the goals it was felt the club needed to earn promotion from League Two.

Head bowed, the then 24-year-old trudged from the field to the sound of an impassioned, on-their-feet reaction of several thousand Fratton Park supporters. Not the sort of angry jeering you hear from time to time when a team is struggling, but cheers.

The sight of Michael Smith being taken off sparked celebrations on the terraces. Cruel indeed.

“The whole place erupted, it was like we’d scored a goal,” Smith told The Star.

“You just want the ground to swallow you up. I was a young lad away from my family and living by myself. That side of it was so tough.

“I’m glad I have come out of the other end now and looking back not I’m thankful for it. I wouldn’t be the man or player I am now.”

The incident turned out to be Smith’s last action as a Portsmouth player. Spells at Northampton Town and Bury followed before he found Paul Warne at Rotherham United and everything fell into place. A cruel game it can be but for someone as hard-working and as bloody-minded as Smith, it can be a rewarding one too.

As Sheffield Wednesday look to shake off the anxiety of five games without a win, his tireless effort up top will likely be vital. Six years on from that Fratton Park humiliation, he rates himself as a better player and person.

Top of League One with seven to play? As adversity goes it doesn’t quite tally with that afternoon on the south coast.

“It was tough – I was a young lad and it wasn’t nice,” he continued. “But like I say, in a weird way I’m sort of thankful for it now because I wouldn’t be as mentally strong and in the place I am now. I feel a lot mentally stronger for those experiences.

“It’s mad in a way because I really did love living down there. I had family on the south coast and I loved playing at Fratton Park while the fans were behind me.

“It’s one of those things. I’ve been around football long enough now to realise fans take to some players and don’t take to other players. There’s no hard feelings from my end.”

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