Fred Smallwood had been a coalminer at the Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham. After a couple of seasons with Wrexham, and then Chester, in the Third North, picking up Wales amateur caps along the way, he had a non-league season with Macclesfield. He then leap-frogged his former League clubs by joining Second Division Southampton.

Small and nippy but very powerful for his size, Fred proved himself equal to his leap by going straight into the first team at outside-left, scoring on debut, and missing only two games all season.

But an injury in a pre-season practice match in 1937 cost him his first-team place, which he never succeeded in wresting back from the newly-signed Harry Osman. A renowned joker, Fred was not amused by the situation and refused terms in May 1938. He moved to Reading for the last season before the outbreak of war, which ended his League career. He guested for Wrexham during the War and also for three north-east clubs. He then settled in the Sunderland area, where he played trumpet in a small dance-band. When Sunderland knocked Southampton out of the FA Cup in 1951, Fred was among the 61,319 spectators at Roker Park.