Mark Lawrenson 1989; Assistant Coach 1989

Mark Thomas Lawrenson was born 2nd June, 1957 in Preston, England. Mark began his career, as a 17 year-old, with his hometown club, Preston North End in 1974 who were managed by 1966 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 Mark qualified to play for Ireland through his grandfather and promptly acted to give him his debut on the 24th 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. He made his Brighton debut on the 20th 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 Mark was forced to leave the club to make funds available. Many clubs were interested in signing him after his resilient performances for both Preston and Brighton, but it was Liverpool manager Bob Paisley that, finally, got his signature.

Liverpool offered a club transfer record of £900,000, and he 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.
Mark made his first start for the team at left-back in a 1-0 league defeat at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on the 29th August, 1981. He scored his first goal a month later during the 7-0 European Cup 1st round 2nd leg trouncing of Finnish team Oulun Palloseura at Anfield on the 30th September. He came on for Ray Kennedy in the 64th minute scoring in the 72nd.

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 6th 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.

He would make 2 appearances for Barnet during the 1988-89 season. 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 his approval.

He joined the Rowdies for the 1989 season, as Assistant Coach to Rodney Marsh, he took the day-to-day training, while Marsh oversaw the entire operation of the club. Mark would appear in 13 games, despite knee surgery to repair a partial tear of the lateral meniscus. He also scored 3 goals, with 3 assists for 9 points.

After the 1989 season he returned to England, to manage Peterborough United from 6th September, 1989 until 9th November, 1990.

Mark 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, when he quickly returned 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, he has assumed the main co-commentator on major national and international (FIFA) matches covered by the television network. He appears regularly on Football Focus and Match of the Day.

Many thanks to Jan Reinertsen for the Rowdies photo of Mark.