Tommy Lawton

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Personal information
Tommy Lawton
Full name	Thomas Lawton
Date of birth	October 6, 1919
Place of birth	Farnworth, England
Date of death	November 6, 1996 (aged 77)
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1935-36 1936-39 1945-47 1947-51 1951-53 1953-55	Burnley Everton Chelsea Notts County Brentford Arsenal	25 (16) 87 (65) 42 (30) 151 (90) 50 (17) 35 (13)
National team
1938-48	England	23 (22)
Teams managed
1953 1956-56 1957-58	Brentford Kettering Town Notts County
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Tommy Lawton (October 6, 1919 - November 6, 1996) was an English association footballer.

1 Playing career
2 Later career
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] Playing career

Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, Lawton's precocious talent won him a trial for the England schoolboy team in which he scored a hat trick but this never led to a junior cap. In 1935, he signed for Second Division club Burnley. Despite flat feet and needing to wear orthotics, as a striker, he rapidly achieved fame for his pace, heading ability and two-footed effectiveness in front of goal.

By the start of 1937, Lawton had been bought by First Division Everton for £6,500 to play alongside the phenomenal, but ageing, Dixie Dean. Exposure and experience in the top flight led to his selection for England in the international against Wales in October 1938, Lawton scoring from the penalty spot in the 4-2 defeat. By the end of the 1938-39 season, he had won three senior caps, scoring 34 goals for Everton in the final season before World War II, helping the club to win the league title.

Lawton (9) in action

For the duration of the war, Lawton served in the army as a physical training instructor. Post-war, he joined Chelsea for £11,500, allegedly to escape from his wife. He made his debut for Chelsea in their friendly match against touring Soviet side FC Dynamo Moscow in November 1945, scoring with a powerful header in a 3-3 draw. Lawton scored 26 goals in 34 league games in the 1946-47 season, but struggled to settle in London and came into conflict with Chelsea manager Billy Birrell, which resulted in him requesting a transfer.

Despite being at the peak of his playing career, he shocked the football world with a move to Third Division Notts County for a record transfer fee of £20,000, probably attracted by manager Arthur Stollery, who had formerly been physiotherapist at Chelsea. At County, he immediately realised an iconic status and real rapport with the Nottingham public, scoring 103 goals in 166 appearances for the club over five seasons and helping them win promotion to Division Two in 1950. Despite playing much of his career in the lower leagues, Lawton was capped 23 times for England, scoring 22 goals.

In 1952, Lawton took the player-manager role at Brentford but enjoyed little success. In November 1953 he joined Arsenal for £10,000 and saw out his professional playing career there. In his two years for the Gunners he scored 15 goals in 38 matches, including one in the Gunners' 1953 Charity Shield win over Stanley Matthews' Blackpool.

[edit] Later career

A second attempt at the player/manager role at non-league Kettering Town was more successful but Lawton could hardly resist the opportunity to manage Notts County when it arose. County's dream appointment ended in disappointment and relegation to Division Two at the end of the season and Lawton chose retirement.

A short-lived appointment as a scout was followed by a period of some financial difficulty, hardly mitigated by fees for a column in the Nottingham Evening Post. Everton arranged a testimonial match for him in 1972.

Lawton's health deteriorated in his old age and he died in November 1996, aged 77, as a result of pneumonia. His ashes are lodged at The National Football Museum. In 2003 Lawton was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his talents. The Hall of Fame is also housed at the National Football Museum.

[edit] Bibliography

Lawton, T (1950) Tommy Lawton's all star football book ISBN B0000CHTOA
Lawton, T (1954) Soccer the Lawton way ISBN B0000CIYT5
Lawton, T (1973) When the Cheering Stopped ISBN 0-901482-17-X
McVay, D &, Smith, A (2000) The Complete Centre Forward: The Authorised Biography of Tommy Lawton ISBN 1-899807-09-8