Lawrie Sanchez

Lawrie Sanchez

Personal information
Full name	Lawrie Sanchez
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Position(s)	Manager
Team information
Current team	Northern Ireland

Lawrie Sanchez (born October 22, 1959) was a Northern Ireland football player and is now the team's Head Coach. He was born in London, England to an Ecuadorian father (who had moved to Britain when aged five years and now lives in San Fernando La Union in the Philippines) and a Northern Irish mother.

Playing career

As a player, Sanchez is most famous for scoring "that goal" that won Wimbledon the FA Cup in 1988 against Liverpool, a match widely believed to be one of the biggest cup final upsets in history. He had first played for Reading, between 1977 and 1984, before moving to Wimbledon for £30,000. He scored the goal that got the Dons promoted to the First Division in 1986, a premonition of their FA Cup glory two years later. While at Wimbledon Sanchez also won three international caps for Northern Ireland, qualifying by virtue of his Northern Irish mother (he had also been invited to try out for the Ecuadorian national team, but declined on the grounds of distance).

He is believed to be the first player to be sent off for a professional foul, after committing a deliberate handball in a Football League Trophy match against Oxford United in 1982 [1].

In 1993 Sanchez left Wimbledon for newly-promoted Swindon Town, but after only a year he left them to become player-manager of League of Ireland club Sligo Rovers. He led Sligo to the semi-final of the 1995 FAI Cup.

Management career

Club Football

In 1995, he returned to Wimbledon and became reserve team manager, winning the Football Combination in his first season in charge. He managed the reserves for under four years, before taking the reins at Wycombe Wanderers in 1998. Sanchez rescued the team from relegation that season, and in 2001 guided the club (then in the Second Division) to one of its greatest moments, playing Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals; Wycombe lost a respectable 2-1, having held Liverpool to 0-0 for most of the match.

However, Sanchez's side failed to meet the ensuing expectations generated by the cup run, finishing only 11th in 2001-02 and 18th in 2002-03. After a poor start to the 2003-04 season, Due to family problems Sanchez resigned as Wycombe Manager on September 30, 2003.

International Football

Sanchez didn't have to wait too long for a new job; after Sammy McIlroy resigned as Northern Ireland manager after a disastrous string of results (finishing bottom of their Euro 2004 qualification group), Sanchez (who had been an assistant manager to Bryan Hamilton in the 1990s) was surprisingly appointed as Northern Ireland's new manager in January 2004.

Since his appointment, the side has notably improved, winning their first game in nearly three years, breaking the team's 1,298 minute-long goal drought, and reversing the team's slide down the FIFA world rankings (the team has moved up some 50 places as of 9 September 2006). Sanchez signed an extension to his contract in March 2005 and on 7 September 2005 he led the team to an amazing, against-the-odds victory against England, winning 1-0 in Belfast in a World Cup qualifying match. Later that same year he guided Northern Ireland to an impressive 1-1 draw against soon to be World Cup 2006 semi-finalists Portugal.

Lawrie's impressive guidance didn't stop there. On the 6th of September 2006, Northern Ireland pulled off what is arguably their greatest ever comeback. Going behind twice, David Healy scored a hat trick for them to beat Spain 3-2 on a memorable night at Windsor Park.

Previous to this match, however, Lawrie has been subject to what many believe to be unfair, intense harassment from the media, in particular the Belfast Telegraph, following the teams opening Euro 2008 qualifier at Windsor Park, which the team sensationally lost 3-0 to Iceland.

On leaving the pitch after the final whistle of the Northern Ireland v Spain match it was reported that Sanchez took off his Irish Football Association jacket and tie and threw these into the crowd thus leading to speculation that he would resign from his position as national coach.

Speculation finally ended on Saturday September 9th when Sanchez released a statement confirming that over the top negative press comments following the recent defeat to Iceland, which ignored the massive improvements made in his time as national coach, had made him consider his position. He also said that public support in light of press speculation persuaded him to stay. [2]

No matter what the future holds for Lawrie Sanchez's reign as Northern Ireland manager & despite his fall outs with some sections of the media, he can be rest assured that his place as one of Northern Ireland's finest ever coaches is already well and truly cemented in place.

External links

• Lawrie Sanchez Biography on the Irish Football Association website

• Lawrie Sanchez at IMDb

References

• "Sanchez to stay in N Ireland job" BBC News Online September 9, 2006, retrieved September 9, 2006.

• "Sanchez stays on as N Ireland coach" Teamtalk.com September 9, 2006

• "Statement From Lawrie Sanchez" Irishfa.com September 9, 2006