Edward James Smith (born 18 January 1996) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
[4][5] He attended King John School and his former PE teacher, Simon Webb, said: "He was a very dedicated student and worked very hard on his football.
When he first went in goal he was actually quite small but he used to devy gravity with how high he could jump to stop shots going in the top corner.
[11] At the start of the 2013–14 season, Smith was given the captaincy for the development squad by Ricky Duncan, saying: "Ted is an excellent leader and probably one of the best I've had since I've been at Southend.
Ted is a very good goalkeeper and seeing Daniel Bentley doing so well for the first-team will give him the confidence to play well for us and try and push on.
[14] At some point around March, he played twice for Southampton B Team as part of regaining some fitness and gain experience with top level goalkeepers after given permission by Manager Phil Brown to do so.
[17] On 14 February 2015, Smith made his first-team debut for the club deputising for Dan Bentley after an injury,[18] playing from the start of a League Two defeat to Accrington Stanley.
[25] After Bentley was dropped to the substitute bench, Smith made his first appearance of the season, starting against Wigan Athletic on 23 April 2016, as the club lost 4–1.
[31] This continues until Oxley suffered an injury, resulting in Smith starting against AFC Wimbledon on 26 December 2016 and kept a clean sheet, in a 3–0 win.
[43] After returning to the substitute bench in December, Smith made his first (and only) appearance of the 2018–19 season against Portsmouth on 8 January 2019 in the last 16 of the EFL Trophy, as Southend United lost 2–0.
[51] Smith made his England U18 debut, starting a match and playing 88 minutes before being substituted, as he kept a clean sheet, in a 4–0 win against Hungary U18 on 14 October 2013.
[57] A month later on 14 November 2014, Smith made his second (and last) appearance for the U19 side, keeping a clean sheet, in a 3–0 win against Italy U19.