{"id":557646,"date":"2020-07-11T11:24:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-11T15:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=557646"},"modified":"2021-12-29T08:47:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T13:47:44","slug":"nathan-smith-port-vale-defender-signs-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/11\/nathan-smith-port-vale-defender-signs-contract-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Smith: Port Vale Defender Signs Contract Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Port Vale defender Nathan Smith has extended his time with the Valiants by signing a new two-year deal.<\/p>\n<h2>Nathan Smith: Port Vale Defender Signs Contract Extension<\/h2>\n<h3>Loanee to Fan-Favourite<\/h3>\n<p>His new deal will tie the talented defender to Vale Park until June 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old academy product emerged as a more regular first-team member during the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n<p>He spent most of his time in that initial year out on loan, registering for Stafford Rangers and Torquay United.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since making his league debut for Vale in 2016, the defender&#8217;s first-team role has continued to grow.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83c\udf89 | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Smith2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Smith2022<\/a> \u2705<\/p>\n<p>More on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nathan3496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@nathan3496<\/a>\u2018s contract extension \ud83d\udc47<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PVFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#PVFC<\/a> \u26ab\ufe0f\u26aa\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M8NyYSMQ1s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/M8NyYSMQ1s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Port Vale FC (@OfficialPVFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OfficialPVFC\/status\/1281640061822525443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This year, Smith scored five goals in over 40 appearances for the Valiants.<\/p>\n<p>After penning a new deal, Smith revealed his delight at extending his time at Vale Park.<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.port-vale.co.uk\/news\/2020\/july\/nathan-smith-signs-two-year-contract-extension\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said:<\/a> &#8220;I\u2019m really happy to get the deal over the line, I\u2019m happy to still be here and we\u2019re ready to finish what we started last year,\u201d said the Valiants defender.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The club has come on leaps and bounds in the last twelve months, I can see where it is going and I want to be part of that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Smith, who sits on 199 Vale appearances, is keen to hit a landmark milestone and to take the Valiants one step further.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;I&#8217;ve got unfinished business to get to 200 [appearances], and unfinished business to get in the play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve not been part of a successful football team yet, but I\u2019m hoping to be part of one next year and I\u2019m sure the club is heading in the right direction, with the signings and the people behind the steering wheel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From the paint on the walls to the people here, I&#8217;m probably one of the few who has been here for quite a while. I can say hand on heart that there has been a massive change and it&#8217;s all for the best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"U9_hupNHSJpB2Nf-NZpCng\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1033791880\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'U9_hupNHSJpB2Nf-NZpCng',sig:'YUkYYCLtQR_8w2Ntg45JE1jTT2xhDCWtYukMaZ7ZfQw=',w:'594px',h:'439px',items:'1033791880',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Port Vale defender Nathan Smith has extended his time with the Valiants by signing a new two-year deal. Nathan Smith: Port Vale Defender Signs Contract Extension Loanee to Fan-Favourite His new deal will tie the talented defender to Vale Park until June 2022. The 24-year-old academy product emerged as a more regular first-team member during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3040,"featured_media":557650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34],"tags":[168,520,5990,509,5751],"class_list":["post-557646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","tag-efl","tag-league-two","tag-nathan-smith","tag-port-vale","tag-torquay-united"],"modified_by":"Matt Lee","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}