With Walsall boss Dean Smith now confirmed as the 41st permanent manager in Brentford FC's history, we take a look at the new man in the Griffin Park hot seat.

Playing career

Smith started out his playing career with the club he would go on to manage, breaking through into the Walsall first team just as they were slipping into the old Division Four, playing more than 150 games for the Saddlers as they struggled to win back their place in Division Three.

A £80,000 move to Hereford in 1994 saw him made club captain at Edgar Street as he led the Bulls to the (new) Division Three play-offs in 1996, before they suffered relegation from the Football League on goal difference on the last day of the season a year later.

This was the signal for a move to Leyton Orient, where Smith stayed for six years, playing more than 300 games for the Os, captaining them to play-off final defeats against Scunthorpe United at Wembley in 1999 and Blackpool at the Millennium Stadium in 2001.

Midway through the 2002-03 season, Smith signed for Sheffield Wednesday but couldn't stop them dropping into Division Two. Eighteen months later he moved on to Port Vale, where he finished his career with a handful of appearances.

Managerial career

Smith's first managerial appointment was as youth team coach at Leyton Orient, and within six months he has worked his way up to become first team manager Martin Ling's assistant. While at Brisbane Road, Smith attained his UEFA Pro Licence, having worked alongside Brendan Rodgers ans Roy Keane on the course, but halfway through the 2008-09 season, Smith and Ling both departed a struggling Orient side.

Within six months, Smith had landed the head of youth job at Walsall, a role which he held for a year and a half before being appointed first team caretaker manager following the sacking of Chris Hutchings. Despite failing to lead the Saddlers to a win (two draws and a deefat) as caretaker, Smith was handed the job until the end of the season two weeks later.

Despite Walsall being nine points adrift at the bottom of League One when he took over, Smith guided the Saddlers to safety by a single point, which was followed by 19, ninth and 13 place finishes over the next three campaigns.

Smith also took the Midlands club to Wembley last season, where they lost the Johnstone Paints Trophy final 2-0 to Bristol City. At the time of his expected departure, Walsall are fourth in League One, having topped the table early on when Smith was named Manager of the Month for August.

We've met before

Smith crossed swords with Brentford a few times in his playing days, but two of them stand out as memorable occasions.

The first was a 2-1 defeat for the Bees at a Leyton Orient in their first season in the bottom division for more than two decades in November 1998. Tony Folan gave Brentford the lead, but Smith himself struck the equaliser from the penalty spot just after half time before Steve Watts hit a late winner for the Os. Bees fans were fuming with what they saw as terrible performances by lineswoman Wendy Toms and referee Kevin Lynch, and when they were booed leading the pitch, Lynch decided to lift his hands to conduct the jeering, which led to a near riot in the away end.

Fast forward five seasons, and Smith, now at Sheffield Wednesday, broke Brentford's hearts with a last-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough. Martin Allen had taken over a seemingly doomed Bees side only a fortnight before and led them to two wins and a draw, and a third victory seemed on the cards when Ibrahima Sonko put them in front in Sheffield. However, the setback did not keep the Bees down for long, as three more wins from their last five games ensured League Two safety.

The vital stats

For a centre back, Smith had a keen eye for goal, netting 72 times in 696 games over the course of his career, including 10 in one season for Leyton Orient.

As manager of Walsall, Smith had led the Saddlers to 84 wins from 260 games, 96 draws and 80 defeats. That makes for a win percentage of just over 32 per cent.

Of those games, eight have come against Brentford, with those resulting in two wins for Walsall, two for the Bees and four draws. The last of those, a 1-1 draw at the Bescot Stadium in January 2014, ended a run of sic straight wins at the start of Mark Warburton's reign.

More important than the win percentage, however, is the fact that Smith has worked wonders on a shoestring budget at Walsall and his sides have been admired for their entertaining football.