Smith knows a good player

And Ian Wright, who Smith discovered while in charge of Dulwich Hamlet 15 years ago, was once the Crawley manager's Penny Black. The former England, Arsenal, Crystal Palace and West Ham star, who last week signed for Burnley after a short spell with Celtic, has announced his intention to finish his glittering career at the end of this season.

But who could have imagined Wright would become such a megastar when he turned up at Dulwich's Champion Hill Stadium, in Dog Kennel Hill, for a Sunday league cup final? Smith did and remembers losing count of the number of goals Wrighty put away for South London club Tenenbee that warm spring day.

"Our ground was always used for these finals and Ian happened to be playing in one that I was watching," recalled Smith. "He was amazingly quick and his finishing looked a cut above anything I'd seen for quite a while."

Wright, then 21, had already been thrown out by Millwall for misbehaving and had been turned down by Albion despite scoring a few goals in a trial match.

He was at this stage plying his trade for Greenwich Borough and Smith invited the raw lad to pre-season training at Dulwich and a couple of pre-season friendlies.

After just four sessions, Smith contacted his close friend, Palace boss Steve Coppell, and recommended the London club take a look at him.

"He impressed me even more when I brought him in for training," said Smith. "We put on a trial match, especially for Steve to watch, but unfortunately he couldn't make it, so their youth team manager, Peter Prentice, was sent down.

"The lad did extremely well and Palace signed him. It all happened so quickly, probably too quickly for me as the Dulwich manager."

Wright, now 36, recalled: "Billy took me on trial at Dulwich and I played a few games for him. I'd been playing non-League football for some while and he was trying to sign me.

"But he set up a game for Peter Prentice to watch and that was that. I joined Crystal Palace instead and the rest is history. I didn't really get to know Billy properly until after joining Palace, because he'd always come down to the training ground. He was always very supportive and a nice man."

Smith remained in contact with Wright while he was at Palace, but saw less of him when George Graham took him to Arsenal in a £2.5million deal in 1991.

The Crawley boss, who used to live near Palace's former training ground at Morden, would often pop in on a Friday to meet Coppell and keep contact with Wright, as well as Andy Gray and Alan Pardew, two of his ex-players when he was in charge of Corinthian Casuals and Dulwich.

And in 1990 a dream was realised for Smith when he was invited to Wembley by Coppell to see Wright, Gray and Pardew line-up in Palace's 1990 FA Cup final team against Manchester United.

Wright came off the bench to score twice in a 3-3 draw before Palace went on to lose to a Lee Martin winner in the midweek replay. It was probably the last exciting cup final at the Twin Towers.

Smith attended the two post-match parties and could be excused for wiping

a tear from his eyes those two days. "They were the proudest days of my life," revealed Smith. "To see three of my discoverees play in a Cup final and one of them score was unbelievable stuff.

"I was more proud for the three boys, because I remember all of them struggling before they broke into the professional game. In fact, a friend of mine ran a printing firm and we managed to get Andy Gray a job there until he won a full-time football contract."

Wright is the first to admit he could not believe how quickly his fortunes changed. "Playing at Wembley in an FA Cup final is a dream for any footballer and had someone said I would be five years earlier I'd have thought they were stupid," he said.

"I was just expecting to either sign for Greenwich Borough again or join Billy at Dulwich, so going to Palace and all the rest was a lot more than I expected."

The last time the two met was a few years ago in a hotel in Manchester after Arsenal had taken on Man United at Old Trafford. Wright made a beeline for Smith and again they talked about the old days.

Wright, ironically, has linked up at Turf Moor with another of Smith's old boys, central-defender Ian Cox, who was recently signed from Bournemouth for £500,000. Cox, Smith's most expensive signing at £1,000 when he managed Carsharlton, was sold by the Crawley boss to Palace for £35,000.

And Wright runs an agency for players, Wright! Wright! Wright!, with Gray and Tony Finnigan, another of Smith's graduates from Corinthian Casuals and Dulwich who went on to play for Palace, Blackburn and Fulham.

A month ago Smith declined the chance to appear on a This is Your Life tribute to Wright because he thought it was a prank. But the Londoner explained: "At the end of the day, Ian has moved on from the Billy Smiths of this world. That's all history. He's done well for himself and I'm just pleased to have helped."

Smith always keeps an eye out for his ex-players "It's self-satisfying when people go on and do well for themselves," he said. "I've never made much money out of football. I do it because it's enjoyable. Unfortunately for me, with no disrespect to Crawley, I've always been the guy who's known for having dull jobs.

"All the clubs I've managed have had no money and it's been down to me to build a team out of nothing, but that is changing a bit at Crawley and my ambition remains to get into the Conference."

While Smith continued managing in the non-league wilderness with the likes of Dulwich, Corinthian Casuals, Carlshalton, Kingstonian, Crawley and Bromley, Wright has built a career that has taken in 254+24sub League and Cup appearances and win 33 England caps.

That has landed him a League and Cup double with Arsenal in 1998, a cup winners medal in 1993 and runners-up medal in the European Cup Winners Cup in 1995. Not to mention a League Cup winners medal with the Gunners in 1993.

Now while Smith tries to keep the Reds in the Dr Martens League, Wright looks to end his career by helping shoot Burnley into the First Division.

He said: "It's been a rollercoaster of a career and I've thoroughly loved it. I wanted to end it on a high note, because retiring at Celtic would've been a sad end. There were a lot of things happening there that weren't very nice and I just want to finish my playing days by enjoying my football. And if that gets Burnley up then even better."

And who would've imagined such a well-know star now would be discovered on Dog Kennel Hill?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.