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Monday, May 29, 2006
There was a packed room with more than 40 London Saints supporters present to hear Lawrie McMenemy on Friday 26th May at the Barley Mow in Horseferry Road.
Ray Betts, one of the LSSC members who were at the FA Cup Final 30 years ago, welcomed Lawrie - and thanked him for the best day of his life and for producing the the greatest ever Saints side.
Lawrie started with his football history starting from his days at Gateshead wanting to play for Newcastle. Injuring his foot during national service made him concentrate on coaching. He talked about his time managing Bishop Auckland, a pit village team illustrating with fascinating little stories. Alan Brown asked him to join Sheffield Wednesday He then joined Doncaster Rover as manager taking them to promotion but was sacked after they got relegated . He then joined Grimsby and then had an interview with Saints after a recommendation by Don Revie to Ted Bates.
He got the job in 1973. He then spoke of the players and board members during his time with Saints again illustrating with fascinating stories. He spoke for over 40 minutes.
The meeting was then handed to question and answers. He said that the club was now no longer a part of the community having had nine managers in nine seasons. He rated Kevin Keegan his best value player but mentioned Peter Osgood, Alan Ball, Wallace Brothers, Le Tiss, Mark Wright.
"Maybe we should have shared a new 40,000 capacity ground with Portsmouth"
Clubs now had to consider pay when signing players. It is now difficult to compete with the bigger clubs. Saints face a hard season to get get out of the championship. He also thought that maybe we should have shared a new 40,000 capacity ground with Portsmouth. He regretted not signing Colin Todd. He said how he had to sell the club to players and also how to bring them down to reality.
In the end Lawrie spoke for nearly two hours. At the end he signed autographs and posed for photographs. A good time was had by all. The evening was an overwhelming success.
