Number 37 and today we look at a goal that went a long way to qualifying us for our last European Championships twenty-four years ago.
Mark Lawrenson – you probably know him from cracking very poor jokes every two seconds as a pundit for BBC and TV3, but there was a time when he was an extremely good player.
Brought into the Irish-fold by John Giles in 1977 after his Preston coach Alan Kelly Senior alerted Gilesy to his eligibility, the moustachioed centre-back cut a stylish figure on the pitch.
So much so that Giles, Hand and Jack Charlton felt it was a waste to deploy him in his natural position of centre-back at times. Charlton indeed played him in midfield on numerous occasions.
In 1987, Ireland had made a poor start to their Euro ’88 qualifying group with Belgium and Scotland leading on top with four points.
Ireland and Lawrenson travelled to fortress Hampden Park to face a talented side featuring Lawro’s clubmate and fellow double-European Cup winner with Liverpool Alan Hansen.
Up until then Ireland had a reputation of being poor travelling away from home in competitive matches, but Charlton in his first campaign as Ireland manager changed that.
Adding mettle by playing Paul McGrath and Ronnie Whelan at fullback, Ireland constricted the Scots to limited chances.
Liam Brady and Lawrenson were left to control the midfield in style.
Lawrenson wasn’t too bad at scoring and had bagged two goals in Ireland’s record 8-Nil win against Malta. A quick free-kick from his Liverpool team-mate John Aldridge to Lawrenson in the box opened up the scoring and gave Ireland a vital 2points.
Lawrenson didn’t make it to Ireland’s first major tournament by suffering an injury, he was a large part of us getting there.
Here’s the moment Mark bagged the goal.
Today marks 37 days to go until the start of Euro 2012, so stick with us every day as we present another memorable Irish soccer moment.
