Lennie Lawrence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lennie Lawrence

Personal information
Full name	Robin Michael Lawrence
Date of birth	12 December 1947 (1947-12-12) (age 61)
Place of birth	Brighton, England
Teams managed
Years	Club
1978	Plymouth Argyle
1982–1991	Charlton Athletic
1991–1994	Middlesbrough
1994–1995	Bradford City
1995–2000	Luton Town
2000–2001	Grimsby Town
2002–2005	Cardiff City
2006–	Bristol Rovers (Director of Football)

Robin Michael Lawrence, commonly known as Lennie Lawrence, (born 12 December 1947 in Brighton, England) is a British football manager. He has managed a number of English clubs and one Welsh club in a coaching career spanning over 30 years. He is Director of Football at Bristol Rovers. He is one of a select few managers to have managed over 1,000 games.^[1]

Lawrence never played league football. He turned out at non-league level for Croydon, Carshalton Athletic and Sutton United. He got his first managerial appointment at Plymouth Argyle as caretaker. He later worked as a coach at Lincoln City, helping them win promotion from Division Four in the 1980–81 season.^[1]

Lawrence moved to Charlton Athletic as reserve-team manager, and was later promoted to full-time manager in 1982.^[1] During his first few years in charge, the club was in a poor financial situation and came close to going out of business in 1984, and even left its home ground, The Valley, in 1985. Despite this, Lawrence not only kept Charlton in the Second Division but gained promotion to the First Division in 1986, ending Charlton's 29-year absence from the top-flight. With limited resources, he kept Charlton at this level for four years, before being relegated in 1990. He remained in charge for a further season.^[1]

Before the start of the 1991–92 season, Lawrence moved on to manage Middlesbrough. Under his stewardship, Middlesbrough finished Second Division runners-up in his first season as manager and gained promotion to the new Premier League butut they struggled in 1992–93 and were relegated at the end of the season.^[1] Lawrence remained in charge until the end of the following season. Upon leaving he helped young chairman Steve Gibson contact his replacement Bryan Robson.^[2]

Lawrence joined Bradford City at the beginning of the 1994–95 season. After a mid-table finish in his first season, Bradford were challenging for promotion in his second season in charge before he left to manage struggling Luton Town in the division above. Lawrence was unable to save Luton from relegation to Division Two at the end of the 1995–96 season, which saw them replaced by former club Bradford. He remained in charge at Kenilworth Road until 2000 when he resigned after failing to take Luton to promotion.^[3]

He made a quick return to management shortly after the beginning of the 2000–01 season with Division One side Grimsby Town.^[1] They avoided relegation and made a reasonable start to the 2001–02 season, and caused an upset in the League Cup third round by knocking out holders Liverpool 2–1 after extra time at Anfield, scoring with a Phil Jevons wonder-goal in the last minute.^[4] However he was sacked later in the season after Grimsby dropped to the bottom of the table.^[5]

After a short while out of the game he joined Division Two side Cardiff City as a consultant. Owner Sam Hammam had made it clear to manager Alan Cork that he expected back-to-back promotions, which it did not look like Cork was going to deliver. Eventually Cork was sacked, and Lawrence took over the manager's chair.^[1] In his first full season in charge, Lawrence took Cardiff to promotion after beating Queens Park Rangers in the 2003 Football League Second Division play-off final.^[6] He remained at Ninian Park for a further two years before being shunted aside in May 2005.^[7]

After acting as a consultant at Cardiff for a while, he was appointed Director of Football at Bristol Rovers, working alongside coach Paul Trollope in a two-tier managerial structure.^[8] In the pair's first full season in charge, Bristol Rovers won promotion into League One after winning the League Two play-offs.^[9]

[edit] Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Plymouth Argyle		14 February 1978	16 March 1978	5	0	2	3	00.00
Charlton Athletic		22 November 1982	10 July 1991	393	120	164	109	30.53
Middlesbrough		10 July 1991	19 May 1994	187	75	60	52	40.10
Bradford City		25 May 1994	27 November 1995	77	29	28	20	41.42
Luton Town		21 December 1995	4 July 2000	248	89	93	66	35.88
Grimsby Town		29 August 2000	28 December 2001	77	22	36	19	28.57
Cardiff City		18 February 2002	25 May 2005	174	72	52	50	41.37
Total				1161	407	435	319	35.05

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Lennie Lawrence managerial statistics at soccerbase.com

v • d • e Plymouth Argyle F.C. – Managers Brettell (1903–05) · Jack (1905–06) · Fullerton (1906–07) · Committee (1907–10) · Jack (1910–38) · Tresadern (1938–47) · Rae (1948–55) · Rowley (1955–60) · Buckingham (1961) · Dougall (1961) · Stuttard (1961–63) · Beattie (1963–64) · Allison (1964–65) · Ufton (1965–68) · Bingham (1968–70) · Stuttard (1970–72) · Waiters (1972–77) · Kelly (1977–78) · Lawrence (1978) · Allison (1978–79) · Saxton (1979–81) · Moncur (1981–83) · Hore (1983–84) · Smith (1984–88) · Brown (1988–90) · Gregory (1990) · Kemp (1990–92) · Gillett & Nisbet (1992) · Shilton (1992–95) · McCall (1995) · Warnock (1995–97) · Jones (1997–98) · Hodges (1998–2000) · Sturrock (2000–04) · Williamson (2004–05) · Pulis (2005–06) · Holloway (2006–07) · Sturrock (2007–)

v • d • e Charlton Athletic F.C. – Managers Rayner (1920–25) · MacFarlane (1925–28) · Lindon (1928) · MacFarlane (1928–32) · Lindon (1932–33) · Seed (1933–56) · Trotter (1956–61) · Hill (1961–65) · Stokoe (1965–67) · Firmani (1967–70) · Foley (1970–74) · Nelson (1974–80) · Bailey (1980–81) · Mullery (1981–82) · Craggs (1982) · Lawrence (1982–91) · Curbishley and Gritt (1991–95) · Curbishley (1995–2006) · Dowie (2006) · Reed (2006) · Pardew (2006–08) · Parkinson (2008–)

v • d • e Middlesbrough F.C. – Managers J.Robson (1899–1905) · Mackie (1905–06) · Aitken (1906–09) · Gunter (1909–10) · Walker (1910–11) · McIntosh (1911–19) · Howie (1920–23) · Bamlett (1923–26) · McWilliam (1927–34) · Gillow (1934–44) · Jack (1944–52) · Rowley (1952–54) · Dennison (1954–63) · Carter (1963–66) · Anderson (1966–73) · Charlton (1973–77) · Neal (1977–81) · Murdoch (1981–82) · Allison (1982–84) · Maddren (1984–86) · Rioch (1986–90) · Todd (1990–91) · Lawrence (1991–94) · B.Robson (1994–2001) · Venables (2001) · McClaren (2001–06) · Southgate (2006–)

v • d • e Bradford City A.F.C. – Managers Campbell (1903–05) · O'Rourke (1905–21) · Menzies (1921–26) · Veitch (1926–28) · Foster (1928) · O'Rourke (1928–30) · Peart (1930–35) · Ray (1935–37) · Westgarth (1938–43) · Sharp (1943–46) · Barker (1946–47) · Milburn (1947–48) · Steele (1948–52) · A. Harris (1952) · Powell (1952–55) · Jackson (1955–61) · Brocklebank (1961–64) · B. Harris (1965–66) · Watson (1966–67) · Hair (1967–68) · McAnearney & Hallett (1968) · Wheeler (1968–71) · Wilson (1971) · Edwards (1971–75) · Kennedy (1975–78) · Napier (1978) · Mulhall (1978–81) · McFarland (1981–82) · Cherry (1982–87) · Dolan (1987–89) · Yorath (1989–90) · Docherty (1990–91) · Stapleton (1991–94) · Lawrence (1994–95) · Kamara (1995–98) · Jewell (1998–2000) · Hutchings (2000) · McCall (2000) · Jefferies (2000–01) · Smith (2001) · Law (2002–03) · Four senior players (2003) · Robson (2003–04) · Todd (2004–07) · Wetherall (2007) · McCall (2007–)

v • d • e Luton Town F.C. – Managers Thompson (1925) · McCartneys (1927–29) · Kays (1929–31) · Wightmans (1931–35) · Liddell (1936–38) · McBain (1938–39) · Martin (1939–47) · Duncan (1947–58) · Owen (1959–60) · Bartram (1960–62) · Crompton (1962) · Harvey (1962–64) · Watkinsc (1964–65) · Martin (1965–66) · Brown (1966–68) · Stock (1968–72) · Haslam (1972–78) · Pleat (1978–86) · Moore (1986–1987) · R. Harford (1987–1990) · Mancinic (1990) · Ryan (1990–91) · Pleat (1991–95) · Westley (1995) · Lawrence (1995–2000) · Hill (2000) · Fuccillo (2000–01) · Kinnear (2001–03) · Newell (2003–07) · Steinc (2007) · Blackwell (2007–08) · M. Harford (2008–Present) (s) secretary (c) caretaker

v • d • e Grimsby Town F.C. – Managers Hickson (1902–20) · Price (1920) · Fraser (1921–24) · Gillow (1924–32) · Womack (1932–36) · Spencer (1937–51) · Shankly (1951–53) · Berkessy (1954) · Walsh (1954–55) · Chilton (1955–59) · Ward (1960–62) · Johnston (1962–64) · McGuigan (1964–67) · McEvoy (1967–68) · Harvey (1968–69) · Kennedy (1969–71) · McMenemy (1971–73) · Ashman (1973–75) · Casey (1975–76) · Newman (1976–79) · Kerr (1979–82) · Booth (1982–85) · Grotier (1985) · Lyons (1985–87) · Roberts (1987–88) · Buckley (1988–94) · Laws (1994–96) · Cockerill (1996) · Swain (1996–97) · Buckley (1997–00) · Cockerill (2000) · Lawrence (2000–01) · Groves (2001–04) · Rodger (2004) · Law (2004) · Slade (2004–06) · Rodger (2006) · Watkiss (2006) · Buckley (2006–08) · Watkiss (2008) · Newell (2008–)

v • d • e Cardiff City F.C. – Managers McDougall (1910–11) · Stewart (1911–33) · Wilson (1933–34) · Watts-Jones (1934–37) · Jennings (1937–39) · Spiers (1939–46) · McCandless (1946–47) · Spiers (1947–54) · Morris (1954–58) · Jones (1958–62) · Swindin (1962–64) · Scoular (1964–73) · Clayton (1973) · O'Farrell (1973–74) · Andrews (1974–78) · Morgan (1978–81) · Williams (1981–82) · Ashurst (1982–84) · Goodfellow and Mullen (1984) · Goodfellow (1984) · Durban (1984–86) · Mullen (1986) · Burrows (1986–89) · Ashurst (1989–91) · May (1991–94) · Yorath (1994–95) · May (1995) · Hibbitt (1995–96) · Neal (1996) · Hibbitt (1996) · Osman (1996–98) · Hibbitt (1998) · Burrows (1998–2000) · Ayre (2000) · Gould (2000) · Cork (2000–02) · Lawrence (2002–05) · Jones (2005–)