Jim Smith pictured leading out QPR against Oxford at Wembley in the Milk Cup final in 1986.

Jim Smith was a lower division player prior to 1969, when he became player-manager of Boston United, then one of the top non-league sides.

Still only 32, Jim moved to Fourth Division Colchester in October 1972. He soon retired and took the other U's to promotion the following season.

Colchester shocked the football world by reaching the League Cup quarter final without having conceded a goal. There, eventual winners Villa struggled to beat the Essex side by two goals to one.

In June 1975, Smith , still only 34, left to take over at Blackburn of the (old) Second Division. He moved up to the top flight in March 1978 when he joined Birmingham. In that short spell, he transformed Brum's fortunes by taking them from 18th place to a top half finishing position.

He sold Britain's first £1 million pound player, Trevor Francis, to Forest and Birmingham spent 1979-80 in Division Two. A believer in entertaining football, Jim played Frank Worthington, Colin Todd and Dave Langan in his side. Smith was sacked by Blues in February 1982 and soon moved to the Manor.

Under Smith, United won back-to-back championships. He signed Manor greats like Langan, Trevor Hebberd, Billy Hamilton, Bobby McDonald, Les Phillips and John Aldridge. He left in Summer 1985, just prior to Oxford's first season in the top flight and was the losing QPR manager when United beat them at Wembley the following April.

All of Oxford United's players, with the exception of Ray Houghton, had been signed by Jim.

He moved to Newcastle in 1988, staying for three years before taking over at Portsmouth. A year later, Liverpool needed a penalty shoot out in the replay of an FA Cup semi-final to dispose of Portsmouth. Despite gaining a phenomenal 88 points in 1993, Pompey missed out on automatic promotion to the top flight on goal average (Newcastle and West Ham going up).

'The bald eagle' moved to Derby in June 1995 and took them up to the top division at the end of his first season with the Rams.

Jim and Nick Merry in 2006

For three seasons Derby showed impressive improvements in the Premiership, finishing 12th, 9th and 8th. However, in the next two seasons Derby narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 16th and 17th. Smith resigned on 7 October 2001 after refusing an offer to become Director of Football. Subsequent managers Colin Todd and John Gregory were unable to stave off relegation.

In 2002, former club Portsmouth offered Smith a position as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp. Having accepted, Smith helped Redknapp win the Division One title at the first attempt in 2002-03, and went on to become a major part of Pompey's consolidation process in the Premier League.

In November 2004, both Smith and Redknapp resigned from Portsmouth after the appointment of a Director of Football. Both considered this to threaten their authority and control in team matters.

Redknapp soon became the manager of Southampton and Smith was appointed his assistant a few weeks later on December 22, 2004, having previously turned down the role of chief scout. However, Southampton were relegated at the end of the season and Smith's contract was not renewed due to cost-cutting.

But in a shock move welcomed by all dedicated Oxford United fans, Smith returned to returned to the club as manager in March 2006 by Nick Merry who had taken over from the unpopular Firoz Kassam.

However, Smith was unable to save them from relegation to the Conference National, but has remained in charge. They narrowly missed out on a return to the Football League in the 2006-07 season, losing to Exeter City in the play-offs but once again the board have kept faith in him.

History compiled by Andy Howland