He featured in no more than twelve games per season in his first three years with Chelsea and missed out on the club's FA Cup final loss to Tottenham Hotspur in 1967.
He was a skilful dribbler and renowned crosser of a ball, often acting as the team's "water-carrier" and providing service for the likes of Ian Hutchinson and Peter Osgood.
He scored again in the 4–1 away win at Crystal Palace in the fifth round, and then in the semi-final against Watford, with the Second Division side holding Chelsea at 1–1, Houseman again played a key part, crossing for Osgood to give Chelsea a 2–1 lead and then adding two more himself in an eventual 5–1 win, first rifling a low shot after dribbling past four Watford players, then side-footing the ball home after a neat one-two with Ian Hutchinson.
[4][5][6] Chelsea reached the League Cup final in 1972, though Houseman was denied a hat-trick of cup-winners medals as they unexpectedly lost to Stoke City at Wembley.
[7] The club declined as a force thereafter, but having won over the critics to become a key member of one of Chelsea's most glamorous and successful sides, he remained with the Blues until their relegation in 1975.
Houseman was killed along with his wife and two friends in a car crash on the A40 near Oxford in March 1977 whilst driving home from a fund-raising charity event.
[9] An expert witness at the trial claimed that Smith had been driving at "maniacal" speed and was "considerably intoxicated", allegedly after a Bullingdon Club dinner.