From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lawrie Sanchez
Personal information
Full name	Lawrence Philip Sanchez
Date of birth	October 22, 1959 (age 47)
Place of birth	Lambeth, England
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Playing position	Manager
Club information
Current club	Northern Ireland
Youth clubs
1974-?	Southampton Thatcham Town
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1978-1984 1984-1994 1994 1994-1995	Reading Wimbledon Swindon Town Sligo Rovers	261 (28) 270 (33) 008 0(0)
National team
1989	Northern Ireland	003 0(0)
Teams managed
1993-1995 1995-1999 2000-2003 2004-	Sligo Rovers Wimbledon Wycombe Wanderers Northern Ireland
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Lawrence Philip (Lawrie) Sanchez (born October 22, 1959 in London, England) is a former Northern Irish football player, who is the current Northern Ireland Manager.

The son of an Ecuadorian father and a Northern Irish mother, Sanchez went to Presentation College, a private boys' school in Reading.

Contents 1 Club Playing Career 2 International Playing Career 3 Club Management Career 4 International Management Career 5 Honours 6 External links 7 References

As a player, Sanchez is most famous for scoring the 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.

Sanchez 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.

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.

Sanchez 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.

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.

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 a surprise 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 Portugal, who went on to reach the World Cup 2006 semi-finals. On 6 September 2006, despite twice going behind, Northern Ireland beat Spain 3-2, David Healy scoring a hat trick.

Previous to this match, however, Lawrie had been the subject of harassment from the media following the teams opening Euro 2008 qualifier at Windsor Park, which the team lost 3-0 to Iceland.

It was reported that Sanchez, on leaving the pitch after the final whistle of the Northern Ireland v Spain match, 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 the following Saturday when Sanchez released a statement confirming that negative press comments following the defeat to Iceland had made him consider his position. He also said that public support in light of press speculation persuaded him to stay. [2]

Sanchez made further progress by leading Northern Ireland to a 2-1 victory over Sweden on March 28, 2007 at Windsor Park, which took them to the top of their qualification group.

His current contract ends in November 2007 and, in December 2006, Sanchez stated that he would be likely to step down as Northern Ireland manager at the end of their current European Qualification campaign. However, he did not rule out another role within the Northern Ireland set-up if it was offered to him by the IFA. [3]

Wimbledon

• F.A. Cup winner - 1988

Preceded by Neil Smilie	Wycombe Wanderers Manager 1999 - 2003	Succeeded by Tony Adams
Preceded by Sammy McIlroy	Northern Ireland Manager 2004 -	Succeeded by incumbent

• Lawrie Sanchez Biography on the Irish Football Association website

• Lawrie Sanchez at the Internet Movie Database

• "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