Tommy Lawton

Tommy Lawton
near Notts County (ca.1951)
Personnel
Surname	Thomas Lawton
birthday	October 6, 1919
place of birth	Bolton ,  England
date of death	November 6, 1996
Place of death	Nottingham ,  England
position	Center Forward
Juniors
Years	station
	Rossendale United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1935-1936	Burnley FC	25 (16)
1936-1939	Everton FC	87 (65)
1945-1947	Chelsea FC	42 (30)
1947-1951	Notts County	151 (90)
1951-1953	Brentford FC	50 (17)
1953-1955	Arsenal FC	35 (13)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1938-1948	England	23 (22)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1953	Brentford FC
1956	Kettering Town
1957-1958	Notts County
1 Only league games are given.

Thomas "Tommy" Lawton (born October 6, 1919 in Bolton , † November 6, 1996 in Nottingham ) was an English football player and coach . During his career, which was interrupted by the Second World War, he made 23 international matches for the English national team between 1938 and 1948.

Player career

Lawton was born in Bolton, showed his footballing talent at an early age and was invited to a trial game for the English student selection team. Although he managed a hat trick there, he never got to a youth international match. In 1935 he joined the second division club Burnley FC and developed very positively despite pronounced flat feet that forced him to wear orthotics . As a striker , he showed an above-average speed, was both feet and headed .

In 1937 Lawton was transferred to Everton FC for a transfer fee of £ 5,000 in the First Division , where he was to act alongside the now aged top player Dixie Dean . His new experience in the top division then led to his first international appearance for England against Wales in October 1938 , in which he scored a penalty goal in a 4-2 win . By the end of the 1938/39 season, Lawton had collected a total of three games for England and scored 34 goals for Everton in his first English championship when the outbreak of World War II interrupted the game.

During the war, Lawton served in the British Army as a physical builder instructor. After the war, he joined Chelsea , although the separation from his wife is said to have been partly responsible for this decision, and scored 26 goals in the 1946/47 season before falling out with the club's management and seeking clearance for one Change of club asked. Although he was at the peak of his performance, he astonished the professional world with his move to the third division club Notts County , which signed him for the record transfer fee of £ 20,000 and had coach Arthur Stollery, the former Chelsea FC physiotherapist, in his ranks. When Notts County developed into the crowd favorite of the Nottingham Annex, scored 103 goals in 166 games during his five seasons for Notts County and helped the club in 1950's promotion to the Second Division. Despite his stint in the lower classes of English football, Lawton made a total of 23 internationals.

In 1952 Lawton took over the role of player- coach at Brentford FC , but could not celebrate any significant successes. In November 1953 he moved back to Arsenal for £ 10,000 to end his playing career there. In his two seasons he scored 15 goals in 38 games for Arsenal, including a goal in the Charity Shield win over Blackpool FC , which had players like Stanley Matthews in his ranks.

Time after the playing career

The second attempt as a player-coach was much more successful at the amateur club Kettering Town than before in Brentford. However, when Notts County registered interest in him as a coach, he moved to his old club. There, however, he could not prevent relegation to the third division during his one year activity and then retired from football.

A brief period as a scout was followed by a difficult financial period, which was only marginally improved by his column in the Nottingham Evening Post . Everton FC hosted a benefit game for him in 1972 . After a continuous deterioration of its constitution, he died in 1996 in his home in Nottingham at a pneumonia . His ashes were given to the National Football Museum after his death . In 2003, in recognition of his sporting achievements, he was inducted into the English Hall of Fame , which is also exhibited in the National Football Museum.

successes

• English Championship : 1939
• Charity Shield : 1953

literature

• T. Lawton: Tommy Lawton's all star football book. 1950, OCLC 774661739 .
• T. Lawton: Soccer the Lawton way. London 1954, OCLC 5850856
• T. Lawton: When the Cheering Stopped. London 1973, ISBN 0-901482-17-X .
• D. McVay, A. Smith: The Complete Center Forward: the story of Tommy Lawton. 2000, ISBN 1-899807-09-8 .

Web links

• Obituary in the Independent
• Profile at Toffeeweb.com
• National team profile on englandfootballonline.com