I’ll be back to fight for place, says loanee Smith (From Worcester News)

I’ll be back to fight for place, says loanee Smith

12:00pm Saturday 28th January 2012 in News By Steve Carley, @stevecarleyWN #WENsport

LEE Smith hopes his stay at Cirencester Town will help him rediscover the form that made him a Worcester City regular.

The attacking midfielder has joined the Centurions on loan for a month after struggling to force his way into the team at St George’s Lane.

Smith signed for City in September and started his first seven games but was dropped in the wake of ill-advised comments on social networking website Twitter.

He has since managed two further starts, at Vauxhall Motors last month and scoring against Hinckley in December, but also battled with a knee injury.

The Gloucester-based 28-year-old felt he needed time away from City and has revealed he asked to be loaned out to a local club, leading to his switch to the Evo-Stik Southern League Premier Division outfit.

He played in their 1-0 win over Redditch United last Saturday and is set to feature against Totton today as Cirencester continue to fight against relegation.

“They have got six matches this month so it will be good for me to get some games,” Smith said. “I asked to go out on loan and we came to an agreement. That’s what I wanted to do but I will come back and fight for my place.

“By the time I got back (from the Twitter suspension), Worcester were on a run and you can’t change a winning team.

“I keep fit outside of football but match fitness is totally different and I needed to get my sharpness because if I was thrown back into the team I wouldn’t do myself justice.”

He added: “I wanted to go somewhere local. I played at Cirencester for two years and their manager Brian Hughes bought me for £7,000 so I wanted to do them a favour. However, my future is at Worcester. Carl Heeley and Matt Gardiner are the best people I have worked with but I want to go back in the right frame of mind.”