By Colin Thompson in London, EnglandCrawley Town striker Jonte Smith has made significant strides in a short period of time at Broadfield Stadium.That’s the glowing assessment of Red Devils manager Richard Barker who is impressed with the steady progress the Bermudian has made since turning pro at the League One club nearly a year ago.“He’s come a long way in a short time,” Barker told The Royal Gazette. “I took over the job in August last year and at the time he looked like a youth team player who had just progressed to training with the pros. And then we put him out on loan and he had a fairly prolific time.”Smith, 18, was loaned out to Ryman Premier League side Metropolitan Police where he banged in 24 goals in 19 appearances.He eventually rejoined Crawley where he made his first team debut for the Red Devils last December in a 3-0 away loss to Bournemouth at Goldsands Stadium.“He came back a different person and has been involved in the first team squad for the last few months now,” Barker said.Former North Village youth player Smith is encouraged by his steady progress.“Things have been going well and I’ve been doing well in training and getting a lot of good feedback which has been good,” he said. “I’ve just been slowly progressing into an all-round better player.”Smith said his stint with Met Police playing against physically stronger footballers has helped his game tremendously.“It was definitely a big jump but that’s where the loan spell came in and helped,” he added.Smith appears to be reaping the benefits from the hard work he’s put into refining his craft which remains a work in progress.“I’m just working on maybe getting a bit stronger and developing little parts of my game that will help me get into the first team more often,” he said.The brother of North Village forward Clay Darrell is always willing to go the extra mile in pursuit of optimum performance.“The manager has been talking to me and letting me know things I need to work on so obviously if I’m not working on them in training and I have a few spare minutes I just go in the backyard and everything helps,” he said.Since his arrival at the club Barker has created a “learning environment” which he says Smith has embraced.“I’ve made a few changes since I came and the environment we try and create now is a learning one where the players come in every day and hopefully learn something and go away better players,” he said. “And to be fair to Jonte he’s bought into that and is starting to reap the rewards a little bit.”Smith and his Red Devils teammates have formed a solid bond.“We have been pretty close-knit for a while now,” he added. “A lot of the lads have been here since the beginning of the season and everything has been going well. A lot of jokes have been shared and it’s all been good.”