Craig Mackail-Smith becomes summer signing number 11 for the Town
Luton Town are delighted to announce the permanent signing of striker Craig Mackail-Smith.
The 31-year-old, and scorer of over 150 career goals, has put pen to paper on a two-year contract.
Having trained and played with the Town over the course of pre-season, the forward joins on a permanent basis to become John Still’s 11th signing of a busy summer of transfer activity at Kenilworth Road.
Mackail-Smith began his career in the youth academy at St Albans, rising to the senior ranks as a teenager before moving to Arlesey Town in 2003.
It was while at Arlesey that John Still spotted the frontman – Mackail-Smith helped the Bedfordshire side knock Still’s Dagenham team out of the FA Cup, and in 2004 he signed for the Daggers.
At Victoria Road the striker scored 42 goals in 119 matches. In 2006/07 he scored 15 goals in 28 games to put the Essex club in contention for promotion before he left for League 2 Peterborough in the January transfer window.
Mackail-Smith was an instant hit at London Road, scoring eight goals in 15 matches for Posh in League 2.
But the following season, 2007/08, he scored 19 times in 41 matches as Peterborough won promotion as runners-up in League 2 – and, better still, in 2008/09 Posh secured back-to-back promotions when finishing runners-up in League 1. That season saw Mackail-Smith net 26 times.
Posh were relegated from the Championship at the end of the following campaign but Mackail-Smith still scored 11 goals as they narrowly missed out on survival.
However Peterborough and Mackail-Smith were celebrating again in 2010/11 when his 35 goals helped Posh return to the Championship with promotion via the Play-Offs, with the forward scoring in the final against Huddersfield at Old Trafford. He was named as the League 1 Player of the Year that season for contribution to the London Road outfit’s cause.
His form for Peterborough had alerted the attentions of scouts from many clubs, and in July 2011 Mackail-Smith joined Brighton on a four-year contract for an initial £2.5m.
During his four seasons on the South Coast, he netted 23 goals in 96 matches for the Seagulls before his contract expired this summer.
Talking to lutontown.co.uk Mackail-Smith said "The club has a fantastic fanbase... I want to be involved in a team that wants to progress, get promoted and win championships, and that's this Club here."
He was also called-up to represent Scotland at international level through his Edinburgh-born grandmother. To date Mackail-Smith has won seven caps and scored once – the winning goal in a 1-0 Euro 2012 qualifying victory over Liechtenstein in October 2011.
Reaction to follow.