FORMER Hartpury University student Matt Smith has joined League Two side Salford City as assistant manager.

Smith, who was captain of the British Universities and Colleges Sport side at Hartpury renews his partnership with new City boss Peter Cklamovski with whom he worked with the Malaysian national team.

Salford came close to promotion but were beaten in the League Two play-off by Notts County.

Smith came to Hartpury from Australia in 2007 to study MSc Sports Management and enter English football.

As captain, Smith guided Hartpury to its first ever universities championship.

A spokesman for the university said: “Everyone at Hartpury wishes Matt the best of luck in his new role at Salford City.”

Speaking about his appointment he said:

“We want to achieve silverware and success, and to get the club promoted, and to do that it’s about creating the right environment and building a foundation. That is what I’m most looking forward to, and I feel very privileged to be part of it. The people I’ve met so far across the whole Club are very positive and have great ambition.

“Peter has shown throughout his career that he has a high level of experience in building successful environments, and having worked with him over the last couple of years I have seen that first hand.

“It is very clear where the Club wants to go, and I think it is important that everyone understands those objectives and targets. The way we want to play is to be attacking and aggressive, so pre-season is going to be a great foundation for that.”

The former defender started his professional career at Portsmouth before going on to captain Brisbane Roar to A-League success, and play internationally for Australia.