Mark Lawrenson

Mark Thomas Lawrenson (born Preston, Lancashire, June 2, 1957) is a former professional football player, a defender in the Liverpool and Irish football teams of the 1980s; he has since become a radio, television and internet pundit for the BBC.

Football career

Preston and Brighton

Mark Lawrenson began his career, as a 17 year-old, with his hometown club, Preston North End in 1974 who were managed by World Cup winner Bobby Charlton. His consistently impressive and solid performances for Preston earned him a call-up to the Republic of Ireland national squad, winning the first of 39 international caps at the age of 19. Johnny Giles found out that Lawrenson qualified to play for Ireland through his grandfather and promptly acted to give him his debut on the 24 April 1977 at Dalymount Park in a friendly with Poland, the game ended 0-0. His season was made complete when he was voted Preston's Player of the Year for the 1976/77 season. After 73 league appearances for the Deepdale club he moved to Alan Mullery's Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer before the start of the 1977/78 season for £100,000, ironically, they outbid Liverpool who also showed interest in the 19 year-old Lawrenson. Lawrenson made his Brighton debut on the 20 August 1977 in a 1-1 draw against Southampton at The Dell. He settled in at the Goldstone Ground and made 40 league appearances by the end of his first season of the club. He went on to make 152 league appearances by the end of 1980/81, However the club entered a financial crisis during in 1981 and Lawrenson was forced to leave the club to make funds available. Many clubs were interested in signing Lawrenson after his resilient performances for both Preston and Brighton, but it was Liverpool manager Bob Paisley that, finally, got his signature.

Liverpool

Liverpool offered a club transfer record of £900,000, and Lawrenson joined in the summer of 1981. He was to form a formidable central defensive partnership with Alan Hansen after Phil Thompson suffered an injury, although he was also used frequently at full back or in midfield. Lawrenson made his Reds bow at left-back in a 1-0 league defeat at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on the 29 August '81. He scored his first goal a month later during the 7-0 European Cup 1st round 2nd leg trouncing of Finnish side Oulun Palloseura at Anfield on the 30 September. Lawrenson came on for Ray Kennedy in the 64th minute scoring in the 72nd. Also coming off the bench to score his first goal for the club was a certain Ian Rush. In Lawrenson's first season, Liverpool won the League championship and the League Cup before winning it again in 1982 and retaining both for another two seasons, becoming only the third club in history to win three titles in a row. They also added the club's fourth European Cup in 1984, the last time Liverpool would win this honour until 2005. Lawrenson and Hansen had become renowned as the best central defensive partnership in English football by the time Liverpool clinched the League and FA Cup "double" in 1986. In doing so the Reds beat derby rivals Everton into second place in the league by just two points and then came from behind to win 3-1 in the derby Cup final at Wembley. By now, Lawrenson's first team place was under serious threat from the younger Gary Gillespie. Lawrenson's partnership with skipper Hansen continued for one more season before Lawrenson, already out through a minor injury, suffered Achilles tendon damage in 1988 which prematurely ended his career. He earned a fifth and final title medal when that season ended. His Liverpool career ended after 332 appearances and 18 goals in all competitions - one of which was the "forgotten fifth" in a 5-0 thumping of Merseyside rivals Everton on the 6 November 1982, a game in which Ian Rush took most of the headlines by scoring four of the five goals and a place in Anfield folklore.

Management

After his time at Liverpool, he was appointed Oxford United manager in 1988. His time at the club was frustrating and he resigned after star striker Dean Saunders was sold by the board of directors, without Lawrenson's blessing. Lawrenson also managed Peterborough United between 06 September 1989 and 09 November 1990. However his spell in charge was mostly unsuccessful.

Career details

• Preston North End F.C (1974 - 1977) 73 league games, 2 league goals
• Brighton & Hove Albion F.C (1977 - 1981) 152 league games, 5 league goals
  • Football League Division Two (level 2) runners-up (1979)
• Liverpool F.C (1981 -1988) 356 appearances, 18 goals
  • 5 Football League Division One (Level 1) winners medals (1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1988)
  • FA Cup winners medal (1986)
  • European Cup winners medal (1984)
  • 3 League Cup winners medals (1982, 1983 and 1984)
  • 2 Charity Shield winners medals (1982 and 1986 (shared))
  • Runners-up
    • 2x Football League Division One (1985 and 1987)
    • FA Cup (1988)
    • European Cup (1985)
    • League Cup (1987)
    • World Club Championship (1985)
    • 2 Charity Shield (1983 and 1984)
• Republic of Ireland 39 caps, 5 goals
• Total goals scored at all levels/competitions = 30

Television career

Lawrenson began working as a pundit for the BBC but then left briefly to become a coach specialising in defensive tactics for Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United. However, the position was again short-lived, with Lawro quickly returning to media work. He has since become established as one of the most prominent pundits and commentators of the game, both on BBC television and radio coverage, often finding himself sitting alongside his former defensive partner, Alan Hansen, and, since the departure from the BBC of Trevor Brooking, has assumed the role of main co-commentator on major national and international matches covered by the television network. He is a regular on Football Focus and Match of the Day. He is also often a co-commentator on BBC Radio Five Live, often working on the feature matches on Sunday afternoons. He previously worked as a pundit for TV3 in Ireland for mid-week Champions League games alongside Welsh national team manager and former Liverpool striker, John Toshack. He currently works on Today FM as a football expert on 'Premiership Live'. He joins presenter Michael McMullan in talking about football related topics and looking ahead to the afternoon games between 2 and 3pm. One of his most memorable moments as a pundit was when he shaved off his trademark moustache after betting on Football Focus that Bolton would be relegated from the Premiership in the 2001-2002 season. He was ultimately proved wrong by Sam Allardyce’s team and kept his word by shaving off the moustache (which has not returned since). He also writes a regular PNE (Preston North End) column for the University of Central Lancashire's Students' Union newspaper, Pluto and a weekly column for the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper. Lawro recently worked with Japanese entertainment company Konami, recording commentary samples for the video game Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, alongside ITV and Setanta Sports commentator Jon Champion. There have been mixed reviews on this quality of work. Lawro is still held in high regards with the Anfield faithful and was voted in at 35th in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. 110,000 Liverpool fans worldwide took part in the poll which was conducted by the official Liverpool Football Club web site, they were asked to list their favourite 10 players of all time. He has come under criticism by Liverpool fans though, when commentating in the FA Cup third round on 7 January 2007 against Arsenal. The fans were unhappy as he didn't comment about the protests by the Liverpool fans calling for Hillsborough justice taking place, despite co-commentator John Motson inviting him to. Lawrenson addressed this issue in his column in the 16 January 2007, edition of the Liverpool Daily Post, describing the protest as "a classy and clever way of making the point, in a way that only the Kop can."

External links

• Official past players at liverpoolfc.tv
• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Brighton seasonal record 1977/1978-1980/1981 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Liverpool seasonal record (part 1) 1981/1982-1983/1984 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Liverpool seasonal record (part 2) 1984/1985-1987/1988 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Republic of Ireland international record 1977/1987 at Sporting-heroes.net
• Mark Lawrenson management career stats at Soccerbase