Lennie Lawrence

Robin Michael Lawrence, commonly known as Lennie Lawrence, (born 12 December 1947) is an English football manager. He is assistant manager and non-executive director at National League side Hartlepool United.

Lawrence was a semi-professional at Croydon, Carshalton Athletic and Sutton United before becoming caretaker manager of Plymouth Argyle in 1978. He went on to manage Charlton Athletic, Middlesbrough (during their debut season in the Premier League), Bradford City, Luton Town and Grimsby Town and Cardiff City. He is one of a select few managers to have managed over 1,000 games.

Since 2005 Lawrence has worked at a number of clubs as either part of the coaching staff or in a Director of Football role. He joined Stevenage in June 2020 as a managerial advisor, to begin at either the restart of the 2019–20 season or the start of the 2020–21 season, following three years as the management consultant to Newport County, Lawrence left this role in early November 2020.

Playing career Lawrence turned out at non-league level for Croydon, Carshalton Athletic and Sutton United during his semi-professional career.

Managerial career Plymouth Argyle and Lincoln City He came to Plymouth as Assistant Manager to Mike Kelly and when Kelly was sacked he got his first managerial appointment at Plymouth Argyle as caretaker and then worked alongside Malcolm Allison as Assistant. He later worked as a coach at Lincoln City, helping them win promotion from Division Four in the 1980–81 season. Upon leaving he helped young chairman Steve Gibson contact his replacement Bryan Robson.

Bradford City and move to Luton Town Lawrence joined Bradford City at the beginning of the 1994–95 season. After a mid-table finish in his first season, Bradford were challenging for promotion in his second season in charge before he left to manage struggling Luton Town in the division above. Lawrence was unable to save Luton from relegation to Division Two at the end of the 1995–96 season, which saw them replaced by former club Bradford. He remained in charge at Kenilworth Road until 2000 when he was sacked by the new incoming Luton chairman, Mike Watson Challis, and replaced with former Luton fans favourite, Ricky Hill.

Grimsby Town He made a quick return to management shortly after the beginning of the 2000–01 season with Division One side Grimsby Town. However, he was sacked later in the season after Grimsby dropped to the bottom of the table.

During the opening weeks of the 2001–02 season, his Grimsby side had briefly led Division One, sparking hopes that he could repeat the promotion success he achieved at Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough with a much smaller club. However, these hopes were quickly extinguished as Grimsby's form plunged.

Cardiff City After a short while out of the game he joined Division Two side Cardiff City as a consultant. Owner Sam Hammam had made it clear to manager Alan Cork that he expected back-to-back promotions, which it did not look like Cork was going to deliver. Eventually Cork was sacked, and Lawrence took over the manager's chair. He remained at Ninian Park for a further two years before being replaced in May 2005.

Hartlepool United Following the sacking of Darren Sarll in October 2024, Lawrence was appointed caretaker manager of Hartlepool United. He was also previously caretaker manager the previous season. On 8 November 2024, he was permanently appointed manager of Hartlepool until the end of the season. On 3 February 2025, Lawrence announced that he had stepped back from his role to allow head coach Anthony Limbrick to take over as manager.

Coaching career After acting as a consultant at Cardiff for a while, he was appointed Director of Football at Bristol Rovers, working alongside coach Paul Trollope in a two-tier managerial structure. In the pair's first full season in charge, Bristol Rovers won promotion into League One after winning the League Two play-offs. He remained in this position until leaving the club on 12 May 2010, with their League One status still intact.

In August 2010 Lawrence joined non-league Carshalton Athletic in a football consultancy role, assisting manager Mark Butler. Four months later he was appointed technical director at Hereford United in League Two, to assist new manager Jamie Pitman.

On 20 January 2011, he was appointed assistant manager at Crystal Palace, to support new rookie manager, Dougie Freedman. In October 2012 Freedman became manager at Bolton Wanderers, and Lawrence was named as a joint-caretaker manager at Crystal Palace with Curtis Fleming, but within a week Lawrence rejoined Freedman at Bolton.

Lawrence's first game at Bolton was a victory over former club Cardiff at the Reebok Stadium, in which a Martin Petrov penalty and a further goal from David Ngog gave Wanderers a 2–1 victory. At the end of the season, Bolton missed out on a Play Off place to Leicester City

On 3 October 2014, he left Bolton along with fellow coach Curtis Fleming following the sacking of Dougie Freedman as manager. He later joined Freedman as assistant manager at Nottingham Forest in early 2015.

During the Summer of 2016 Lawrence became assistant manager to Paul Trollope at Cardiff City. However, a poor start to the 2016/2017 season saw Paul Trollope sacked in the October at which time Lawrence also departed from the club.

Consultancy roles On 21 March 2017, Lawrence joined Newport County as First Team Management Consultant to new manager Mike Flynn with Newport 11 points adrift at the bottom of League Two. A remarkable turnaround in the remaining 12 league games saw Newport complete the Great Escape and avoid relegation with a win against Notts County with a 89th-minute winner on the final day of the 2016–17 season. Lawrence departed County in June 2020 at the end of the 2019–20 EFL League Two season. Following the sacking of John Askey, Lawrence was appointed caretaker manager in January 2024. After Kevin Phillips was appointed as Askey's successor, it was confirmed that Lawrence would be one of his assistant managers.

Managerial statistics §: Joint caretaker manager with Curtis Fleming

Honours Charlton Athletic Football League Second Division second-place promotion: 1985–86

Middlesbrough Football League Second Division second-place promotion: 1991–92

Cardiff City Football League Second Division play-offs: 2003 Football League Championship Manager of the Month: January 2005