Why joining Harrogate Town will enable Reece Smith to realise his 'maximum potential'

The 23-year-old left-winger became the League Two Sulphurites’ sixth new signing of the summer when he joined on a two-year deal last week following his departure from Maidenhead United.

Smith has enjoyed two productive seasons in the National League with the Magpies, playing week in week out while contributing 17 goals and 17 assists during that time.

But he has done so as a part-time footballer, training three times per week, as Maidenhead are not a fully professional outfit.

Thus, Smith is confident that the benefits which will come with going full-time – and training and playing at a higher level – can only improve him as a player and help bring out the very best in him.

"I really do feel that full-time football will allow me to kick on to a new level,” he said. “I have just turned 23 and it was pivotal for me that I went full-time with my next move.

"I feel like there is so much more that I can offer and give in terms of performance and levels. I really don’t think that I am anywhere near my maximum potential and I think that going full-time is really going to help me achieve that.

"Training every day, that sharpness, that fitness and playing with players of a higher level improves your own game.

"You have to be on it every day in training, and that’s what I love. I love working hard and making sure that I am being the best version of myself. That’s the thing I am most looking forward to.”

Lloyd Kerry, Town’s head of recruitment and the man responsible for identifying Smith and persuading him to choose Harrogate over reported interest from other clubs including League One Reading, is also of a similar opinion regarding full-time football.

“We feel Reece can step up with the ability he has got, and coming into a full-time environment he’ll only go from strength to strength,” he said.

Smith follows strikers Shawn McCoulsky and Mason Bennett, midfielder Jack Evans and defenders Tom Bradbury and Lewis Cass in joining Town during the close season.

And he becomes the fourth player to leave Maidenhead for Harrogate in recent years after McCoulsky, Danilo Orsi and Zico Asare, who remains under contract for the 2025/26 campaign.