National Game Awards 2017/18 in association with SCL – Smith isn’t taking his No.1 prize for Grant-ed

Reusch Goalkeeper of the Year winner is Grant Smith (Boreham Wood)

Any team challenging for honours needs a safe pair of hands between the sticks and Boreham Wood have got one of the best.
In all, Grant Smith kept kept 18 clean sheets and made some vital saves at vital times as Wood  upset Blackpool in the FA Cup before finishing fourth in the National League.
They then beat AFC Fylde and Sutton United in the play-offs to reach the Promotion Final where they took on Tranmere Rovers.
Smith was a big part of the success of Luke Garrard’s side and pipped a number of top stoppers to the prize.
As well as his club form, he also earned two England C call-ups for their International Challenge Trophy Final in Slovakia and March’s friendly against Wales – where his qualities shone through again.
And he paid tribute to the goalkeeper union.
“It’s a great honour to get it,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of top goalkeepers in the league, so I’m delighted. I felt like I had a good season but I know that there are a lot of good players and anyone would have deserved it, so I’m delighted I’ve been picked.”
Smith was at Stamford Bridge just a few days after the disappointment of missing out to Tranmere in the National League promotion final.
While still feeling the pain of their 2-1 defeat, the 24-year-old knows that, in time, they can look back on a wonderful season with pride.
“The emotions are still quite raw, so it’s hard to look back at the moment but I’m sure that once the summer’s out of the way, we’ll be able to use this season as energy to go forward,” the former Bognor Regis Town keeper said.
“From the start of the season, nobody would have said that we’d have been in the final of the play-offs at Wembley. We were so close but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.”
 
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