Mark Lawrenson recalled the night Jack Charlton gave him the ‘biggest bollocking,’ after Lawrenson scored the famous goal in the Euro qualifiers against Scotland in 1987.
Speaking on Off The Ball, Lawrenson, who made 39 caps for the Republic of Ireland between 1977 and 1987, paid tribute to his former manager Jack Charlton who passed away yesterday at the age of 85.
“We know that Bob Paisley should’ve got the job the way the board voted and organised but when you think about it, the right man got the job.
"Maybe not in the right way, but certainly he was the right man at the time.
“We always had decent players, we just lacked a bit of organization and Jack gave it to us.
"We didn’t have a massive fanbase when he first started due to the way that he played, but once you start winning and you get some results you start think, with the group of players we got, this is the best way we can go about winning and we all bought into it.”
Mark Lawrenson on Jack Charlton
Lawrenson spoke about the famous night in Hampden Park, where Ireland secured a 1-0 victory over Scotland that was key to qualifying for Euro '88.
Lawrenson who scored the only goal of the game that day and almost snatched a second, recalls Charlton’s reaction after the match.
“Jack comes running over to me. Everyone thought he was going to put his arm around my shoulder and say 'what a goal'. Instead, he gave me the biggest bollocking ever. He just said to me, ’why did you try to score in front of goal? Don’t ever do that again in my team.’
“The tactics with Jack were so simple. Every player that played really worked hard for him. They loved playing for him. He treated you like men, he would let you have a drink and he would never fill your brain with rubbish.
“He was very easy to work for and play for.”
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