Liam Lawrence

Liam Lawrence (born 14 December 1981) is a former professional footballer who played as a winger or central midfielder.

Lawrence was born in Retford and joined Mansfield Town's youth team in 1996.

He progressed the through to the first team making his professional debut against Blackpool in the Football League Trophy in the 1999–2000 season.

He played 18 matches in 2000–01 scoring four goals as Mansfield finished in 13th position.

In 2001–02 he made 37 appearances as the Stags gained promotion to the third tier however relegation was suffered in the following 2002–03 season with Lawrence playing in 46 matches scoring 12 goals.

In 2003–04 Lawrence played in 52 games and scored 21 goals for the club helping then to reach the play-offs.

After over coming Northampton Town on penalties Mansfield faced Huddersfield Town in the final.

After a 0–0 draw they faced another penalty shootout but Mansfield lost 4–1 with Lawrence missing his penalty.

Lawrence joined Sunderland in June 2004 for a fee of £175,000.

Lawrence had a promising first season at Sunderland, scoring 6 goals in 32 appearances, including two superb strikes against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light on 2 November 2004.

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.

Sunderland won the Championship in 2004–05 and gained promotion to the Premier League.

Lawrence started his career at his local club Mansfield Town, after impressing at the Field Mill he signed for Sunderland in June 2005.

Following Sunderland's promotion to the top flight Lawrence found himself in and out of the first team squad for the first few months of the 2005–06 season.

Despite this, Lawrence still made 23 starts and 10 substitute appearances for the club, scoring 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 teammate Dean Whitehead for the annual Player of the Year award, and was seen as one of Sunderland's better performers.

He joined Stoke City, on loan in 2006, and made his move permanent in January 2007.

Lawrence and Whitehead both signed new contracts in August 2006.

Lawrence joined Stoke City initially on loan in November 2006 after falling out of favour with Roy Keane with the deal becoming permanent in January 2007.

He made a fine start to his Stoke career scoring against Cardiff City and Ipswich Town.

In 2006–07 Stoke narrowly missed out on the play-offs finishing in 8th position.

In 2007–08 Lawrence played in 44 matches scoring 15 goals as Stoke gained promotion to the Premier League in 2nd position.

Lawrence struck a great partnership with Ricardo Fuller and the pair scored a combined total of 30 goals with Lawrence winning the player of the year award.

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.

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 pet Labrador damaging his ankle.

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 latter securing Stoke's survival.

Born in England, Lawrence made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in 2009, and earned 15 caps in a two-year spell.

Lawrence signed a new contract at Stoke in July 2009 keeping him at the Britannia Stadium until 2013.

Lawrence found himself in and out of the side in 2009–10 making 25 league appearances of which 11 were as a substitute and he scored once against Hull City in April.

In September 2010, he signed for Portsmouth on loan, and signed permanently in the January transfer window.

After the season ended Lawrence stated that he expected to leave Stoke during the summer of 2010.

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.

The deal was supposedly completed and the two Stoke players arrived at Fratton Park, but paperwork was not submitted in time for the transfer to go through.

He eventually made an emergency-loan move to Pompey on 9 September Lawrence made his Portsmouth debut on 11 September in a 0–0 draw with Ipswich at Fratton Park.

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.

With Portsmouth in financial difficulties he spent time out on loan at Cardiff City and joined Greek side PAOK in the summer of 2012.

He then returned to England for a brief spell at Barnsley in 2014 before joining Shrewsbury Town, captaining the side to promotion to League One in his only full season before a free transfer to Bristol Rovers.