ALAN Smith, the most unpopular manager in Wycombe Wanderers history, will relaunch his managerial career at Adams Park tomorrow as the new boss of Crystal Palace.

Smith, who has been out of first team management since some Wanderers players cheered his sacking four years ago, was appointed Palace's new manager on Tuesday.

And, in a bizarre quirk of fate, his first game in charge takes him back to Wycombe for Palace's friendly tomorrow, where he has been promised a hostile reception by unforgiving Blues fans.

Ian Baker, editor of the club's When Skies are Blue fanzine, said: 'He's probably the least popular man in Wycombe. I don't even like talking about him. He dismantled all the good things that Martin O'Neill did. He signed rubbish, ruined team spirit and made us play hoofball. He was a disaster.'

But director Graham Peart is urging fans to lay-off. He reminded them that along with Lawrie Sanchez, Smith remains the club's most successful boss since O'Neill.

Peart said: 'Some people would have you believe that Alan Smith is Satan. But I think they're being very unfair. He was in an almost impossible position succeeding Martin O'Neill and any manager would have struggled.'

Smith arrived at Wycombe from his first stint as Palace boss as successor to O'Neill.

But he lost the respect of fans and some players by off-loading some of O'Neill's ageing stars who had taken Wycombe into the League. He dropped supporters' favourite Paul Hyde after a contract dispute and humiliated his players by holding his half-time team talk on the pitch during a 5-0 defeat at Walsall.

Blues' Steve Brown said: 'Alan had a way of doing things that didn't always work here, but personally I didn't fall out with him.'

He is urging the hate-mob to lay off his former boss tomorrow.

He said: 'I'm sure some will turn up to vent their anger at him, I just wish they'd shown that sort of hysteria and turned up in greater numbers for Keith Ryan's testimonial, because he deserved a big crowd.'

Smith told the BFP that he is expecting a rough ride from the Adams Park boo-boys who he accused of vandalising his car as tempers flared towards the end of his 15-month reign.

He said: 'It's a strange coincidence that my first game back at Palace is at Wycombe.

'If the fans are going to give me a hard time, they will go that way and there's nothing I can do about that. I've got to be big enough to take it. Tomorrow I have got to concentrate on my first game in charge and get my mind around that.'

Smith, who always enjoyed a good relationship with Blues chairman Ivor Beeks and was the fans' choice when he was first appointed, admitted his Wycombe experience hurt.

He said yesterday: 'Whatever way I turned I didn't seem to be accepted. I would be a liar if I said it didn't hurt, I'd never experienced that before.

'I came after Martin O'Neill and there were a lot of players that Martin and the board accepted were at the end of their career. I inherited a team where a lot of the lads were in their mid thirties. It was a time that needed change and I had to bite the bullet and make changes. There were a few people that wouldn't accept it and there was almost a revolt from some of the people there.'

Smith who has succeeded the sacked Steve Coppell at Palace added abd ios among the London club's most successful ever managers said: 'I have got nothing against Wycombe. I know Lawrie Sanchez and I think Wycombe have got a lot to be proud of.'

Tomorrow's match, the last of Blues' pre-season friendlies, kicks off at 3pm.