Jump to content

Liam Lawrence: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 18: Line 18:
| years4 = 2007–2010 | clubs4 = [[Stoke City F.C.|Stoke City]] | caps4 = 105 | goals4 = 21
| years4 = 2007–2010 | clubs4 = [[Stoke City F.C.|Stoke City]] | caps4 = 105 | goals4 = 21
| years5 = 2010–2011 | clubs5 = → [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] (loan) | caps5 = 17 | goals5 = 7
| years5 = 2010–2011 | clubs5 = → [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] (loan) | caps5 = 17 | goals5 = 7
| years6 = 2011– | clubs6 = [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] | caps6 = 53 | goals6 = 0
| years6 = 2011– | clubs6 = [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] | caps6 = 36 | goals6 = 0
| nationalyears1 = 2009–
| nationalyears1 = 2009–
| nationalteam1 = [[Republic of Ireland national football team|Republic of Ireland]]
| nationalteam1 = [[Republic of Ireland national football team|Republic of Ireland]]

Revision as of 19:03, 11 February 2012

Liam Lawrence
Image of Liam Lawrence
Personal information
Full name Liam Lawrence
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Right winger
Team information
Current team
 Portsmouth
Number 7
Youth career
1988-1991 Babworth Rovers
1991–1996 Notingham Forest
1996–1999 Mansfield Town
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2004 Mansfield Town 136 (35)
2004–2007 Sunderland 73 (10)
2006–2007 → Stoke City (loan) 8 (2)
2007–2010 Stoke City 105 (21)
2010–2011 → Portsmouth (loan) 17 (7)
2011– Portsmouth 36 (0)
International career‡
2009– Republic of Ireland 15 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11 February 2012
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 October 2011

Liam Lawrence (born 13 December 1981 in Retford, Nottinghamshire) is a professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Football League Championship side Portsmouth and the Republic of Ireland.

Lawrence started his career at his local club Mansfield Town after impressing at the Field Mill. He joined Stoke City on loan in 2006 and made his move permanent in January 2007. He became a key player for Stoke and helped the club to promotion to the Premier League in 2008 earning himself player of the year award. In September 2010 he signed for Portsmouth on loan and signed permanently in the January transfer window.

Playing career

Before starting out at Mansfield, Liam was destined for the top after the support and encouragement of Roy Beswarick, who worked as a P.E teacher at Carr Hill Primary School, Retford. Another one of Roy Beswarick's prospects Steven Elkington Jr was unlucky not to make it professionally, this could be due to too many trips to the Hallcroft fish & chip shop with his Dad Steven Elkington Sr (King Pig).

Mansfield Town

He was renowned at Mansfield Town for the major role he played in helping reach the 03-04 play-off final. He won player of the season for the Stags with some eye-catching performances, despite missing a penalty for Mansfield in the Division 3 play-off final. His most memorable performance for Mansfield fans was 18 January 2003, where he set up one goal and scored an injury time winner at Saltergate versus Chesterfield to secure a 2-1 victory for the Stags. Lawrence was just one penalty shy of equaling the all time record of penalty scoring in a Season during the 2003/04 Season, where he converted 13 out of 14 penalties, the one he missed was versus Carlisle towards the end of that campaign.

Sunderland

It was clear that Lawrence was a great prospect and was spotted by Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy and his scouting staff, who snapped him up from Mansfield, and as he was under 24 at the time, had to pay a fee for him to the lower league club. Unfortunately for Mansfield, the paltry sum of £175,000 was agreed at a tribunal.

Lawrence had a promising first season at Sunderland, scoring 6 goals in 32 appearances, including two superb strikes against Wolves at the Stadium of Light. He also helped create one of the most important goals in Sunderland's season, scored by Marcus Stewart, against Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium.

Following Sunderland's promotion to the Premiership in 2005, Lawrence found himself in and out of the first team squad for the first few months of the 05/06 season. Despite this, Lawrence still made 23 starts and 10 substitute appearances for the club, scoring stunning goals against Fulham, Chelsea, and Sunderland's bitter rivals Newcastle United at St James' Park. Although the season ended in disaster for Sunderland, who were relegated with a then record low of 15 points, Lawrence ended the season as runner up to team-mate Dean Whitehead for the annual Player of the Year award, and was seen as one of Sunderland's better performers.

Stoke City

Lawrence was initially loaned to Stoke City before the move was made permanent with a £500,000 transfer fee.[1] Lawrence became a popular player at Stoke after he gelled quickly with other on loan players and also weighed in with some important goals. He scored a hat-trick including two penalties against Barnsley in a 3–3 draw. He also won Stoke City Player of the Year for the 2007–08 season.

Lawrence scored Stoke's first home goal in the Premier League in 2008 when he scored a penalty against Aston Villa. However Lawrence injured himself when he tripped over his dog damaging his ankle.[2] He had to undergo ankle surgery to repair a tear in the ligament. He returned from injury towards the end of the season and scored winning goals in games against Blackburn Rovers and Hull City with the later securing Stoke's survival. Lawrence signed a new contract at Stoke in July 2009 keeping him at the Britannia Stadium until 2013.[3]

Portsmouth

On 31 August, the summer transfer window deadline day, Lawrence and Stoke teammate Dave Kitson were a part of an exchange deal which sent Portsmouth defender Marc Wilson to the Potters with the pair moved in the opposite direction.[4] The deal was supposedly completed and the two Stoke players arrived at Fratton Park, but the Football League claimed that Lawrence did not complete his move until 12 minutes after the transfer window closed.[5] He eventually made an emergency-loan move to Pompey on 9 September.[6] Lawrence made his Portsmouth debut on 11 September in a 0-0 draw with Ipswich at Fratton Park.[7] He scored his first goal for the club against Leicester City in the Football League Cup on 21 September. On 24 September, he scored his first league goals, a penalty and a deflected free kick in their 6–1 league win over Leicester City.[8] On 2 October, Lawrence scored a late equaliser as Portsmouth drew 2-2 with Middlesbrough at the Riverside to notch up his fourth Portsmouth goal in just seven matches.[9] On 30 October, he netted the winner from inside the box as Pompey beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at Fratton Park.[10]

On 1 January 2011, Lawrence completed his permanent move to Portsmouth, signing until the summer of 2014.[11] Since his move to Portsmouth permanently, Lawrence yet to score his first goal. In his second season, Lawrence missed a penalty on a 90th minutes with the last kick of the game after it hit the post which also should be 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion which the result was 1-0.[12]

International career

Lawrence playing for Ireland against Algeria in a 2010 friendly

Lawrence is an Irish citizen through his Kerry-born grandfather. On 16 February 2006, Lawrence received his first international call-up, for the Republic of Ireland in their friendly game against Sweden on 3 March, but spent the entire match as an unused substitute. On 18 May 2009, Lawrence was named in the Irish squad for a friendly with Nigeria[13] and subsequently made his debut in that match ten days later.[14] Following this, Lawrence was named in the starting eleven for Ireland's friendly against South Africa on 8 September, scoring his first international goal in the 37th minute directly from a free kick. Lawrence made his competitive international debut in Ireland's penultimate 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Italy in Croke Park on 10 October, which ended 2-2. He also made a start against France in the first-leg of Ireland's crucial 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off on 14 November, which France won 1-0 with Nicolas Anelka netting the only goal.[15] The second leg of this tie saw the notorious Thierry Henry handball.

International goals

As of 25 May 2010

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 8 September 2009 Thomond Park, Limerick, Ireland  South Africa 1–0 1–0 Friendly
2. 25 May 2010 RDS Arena, Dublin, Ireland  Paraguay 2–0 2–1 Friendly

Career statistics

As of 28 January 2012
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[A] Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Mansfield Town 1999-00 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0
2000–01 18 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 4
2001–02 32 2 3 0 1 0 1 0 37 2
2002–03 43 10 1 2 1 0 1 0 46 12
2003–04 41 19 4 3 1 0 3 0 52 21
Total 136 35 8 5 3 0 6 0 153 40
Sunderland 2004–05 32 6 0 0 2 0 – 34 6
2005–06 29 3 2 0 2 0 – 33 3
2006–07 12 0 0 0 1 0 – 13 0
Total 73 9 2 0 5 0 0 0 80 9
Stoke City 2006–07 8 2 0 0 0 0 – 8 2
2006–07 19 3 1 0 0 0 – 20 3
2007–08 41 14 2 1 1 0 – 44 15
2008–09 20 3 1 0 1 0 – 22 3
2009–10 25 1 4 0 2 0 – 31 1
Total 113 23 8 1 4 0 0 0 125 24
Portsmouth 2010–11 31 7 1 0 1 1 – 33 8
2011–12 20 0 1 0 1 0 – 22 0
Total 51 7 2 0 2 1 0 0 55 8
Career Total 373 74 19 6 14 1 6 0 413 81

Footnotes

A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals (including those as a substitute) in the Football League play-offs, and Football League Trophy.

Honours

Club

Sunderland
Stoke City

International

Republic of Ireland

Individual

References

  1. ^ Alcock, Chris (2007-02-01). "Lawrence Signs". Stoke City FC Official Website. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  2. ^ "Lawrence dogged by bizarre injury". BBC. BBC Sport. 1 October 2008. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  3. ^ "Lawrence signs new Stoke contract". BBC. BBC Sport. 15 July 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  4. ^ "Marc Wilson arrives at Stoke City to complete his part-exchange move from Portsmouth". Goal.com. Goal.com. 31 August 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  5. ^ "Portsmouth ready seal loan swoop Stoke midfielder Liam Lawrence". DailyMail. DailyMail. 7 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  6. ^ "Liam Lawrence granted emergency loan to crisis cub Portsmouth". DailyMail. DailyMail. 9 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  7. ^ "Portsmouth 0 Ipswich 0". BBC. BBC. 11 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  8. ^ "Portsmouth 6 - 1 Leicester". BBC. BBC. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  9. ^ "Middlesbrough 2-2 Portsmouth". BBC. BBC. 2 October 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  10. ^ "Portsmouth 2 - 1 Nottingham Forest". BBC. 30 October 2010.
  11. ^ "Liam Lawrence Clinches Portsmouth Deal". BBC. BBC. 1 January 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  12. ^ "Portsmouth 1 - 0 Brighton". BBC. 13 August 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "Lawrence handed Republic call-up". BBC Sport. 2009-05-18. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  14. ^ "Rep of Ireland 1–1 Nigeria". BBC Sport. 2009-05-29. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  15. ^ "Republic of Ireland 0–1 France". BBC Sport. 14 November 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liam_Lawrence&oldid=476318834"