of the Season awards, behind runaway winner Ben Foster. However, Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd named Smith as his "outfield player of the season." After relegation from the Premier League, Smith had a successful season in the Championship, with seven goals and nine assists earning him the 2008 Watford Player of the Season award. One of his goals was the equaliser in a 1–1 draw against Blackpool on the last day of the regular season, which secured Watford's place in the 2007–08 Championship play-offs. Smith played in both legs of the semi finals, where they were defeated 6–1 on aggregate by Hull City. One of his best seasons was the 2008–09 season, in which he scored seventeen league goals and made nine assists. As well as finishing as the club's top scorer, he was named Player of the Season for the second year running, as Watford finished 13th. Smith made his 300th appearance for Watford in the penultimate game of the season, a 3–2 win away to Coventry City. He started the 2009–10 season in similar form, and was involved in all of Watford's first seven league goals, scoring two and assisting the other five. This was despite ongoing transfer speculation linking Smith with Reading—managed by former Watford manager Brendan Rodgers—as well as other Premier League and Championship clubs, and Watford manager Malky Mackay confirming that the club was considering an offer for him. Portsmouth On 27 August 2009, it was confirmed that Smith had signed a four-year deal with Premier League club Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £1.8m. He later admitted that he was close to signing for Championship side Reading but chose Portsmouth instead. On 30 August 2009, Smith made his Portsmouth debut in a 1–0 defeat to Manchester City at Fratton Park. Portsmouth failed to pay their player's wages on time on three occasions in the 2009–10 season, and Smith was among a number of Portsmouth players linked with a transfer during the January 2010 transfer window. However, due to his five games for Watford, he would have been ineligible to play for another club during the 2009–10 season. Smith scored his first goal for Portsmouth against Hull City on 20 March 2010. He suffered a broken nose following Daniel Sturridge elbowing him in the face in the following game, and subsequently missed the FA Cup semi-final. However, he recovered to