Lawrie Sanchez’s Crazy Gang
Before heading Wimbledon to Wembley glory, the midfielder paved the way for Vinnie Jones – it was bad news for Gazza...
How did you join Wimbledon from Reading?
I was a Reading boy – my school was a long goalkeeper’s kick from Elm Park. We went up from the Fourth Division in 1983- 84, I’d had a great season as second- leading goalscorer and was runner- up for player of the year. The manager, Ian Branfoot, asked, “How do you think you’ve done this season?” I said, “Yeah, quite well.” He said, “No, I don’t think you’ve done very well.” My stomach dropped. Given the chance, I’d have remained a Reading boy until the end of my days, but in that moment I knew my time was up. The following season, I was told Swindon wanted to sign me. I met Lou Macari and he was really good with me, but I sat at home gutted, feeling I was being forced to go somewhere I didn’t want to go. Then I got a phone call saying, “I understand you’re going to Swindon – don’t join them, as Dave Bassett wants to meet you.”
How did that go?
I met someone called Alan Gillett, who kept saying, “Harry will be along in a minute”. I’m thinking, ‘ Who the hell is Harry? I’m here to see Dave Bassett’ – not realising that was his nickname! Dave finally turned up and offered me no more money than Swindon had. They were in the Fourth Division and Wimbledon were in the Second. I thought, ‘ Sod it, I’ll go’. I wanted to play at the highest level I could.
What were your first impressions?
I remember my first day – I was sat next to Alan Cork in the dressing room and he said, “I don’t know why you’ve come here – this is a s** t club, the manager doesn’t know what
he’s doing, the players are useless and we’re getting relegated.” I thought, ‘ Well this looks like a great move!’ It was only later I realised that was Alan’s natural demeanour.
Within a couple of years, Wimbledon had been promoted to the top flight...
I scored the goal at Huddersfield that got us promoted. I hit nine that year – actually 10, because I scored at Bradford and the game was abandoned. We received our bonuses in cash – I was getting £ 50 a goal, and an extra £ 500 if I scored 10. I went to see Bassett and he gave me £ 450. I was like, “Harry, I scored 10?” He said, “That game was abandoned, so it doesn’t count.” I said, “It’s not my fault it was abandoned. I want my £ 1,000.” He said, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do – you can have half”, and gave me £ 250. I left thinking, ‘ I’ve done OK there’, but looking back, I’d opened the golden gates to the top flight and they were arguing over £ 250! That’s how Wimbledon was, though – we accepted it and moved on.
What was it like playing with Vinnie Jones?
I always say I made Vinnie, for two reasons. First, it was my ban that allowed him to play. I got sent off with Graham Roberts at Spurs. Harry called me on the Sunday night saying, “Lawrie, it’ll be in the papers tomorrow that you’re getting fined two weeks’ wages and that you were a disgrace for getting sent off, but the club will pay.” Vinnie starts against Manchester United, bullets a header into the goal, then jumps on the fencing going potty. I’m thinking, ‘ That guy’s going to be a legend’. Then there was the Paul Gascoigne situation.
What happened?
[ Assistant manager] Don Howe said to me on the Friday, “There’s a young lad at Newcastle and I want you to man- mark him.” I was 28 and thinking I didn’t want to be chasing a kid around, so I was clever. I said, “Don, I’d love to do it, but I don’t think I’d be great – Vinnie would lap it up.” So Vinnie marks Gascoigne the next day, and there was that photograph of him grabbing his balls, bringing them both to prominence. Vinnie literally followed Gazza all over the pitch, but he took our long throws. We got one by Newcastle’s box and he said, “Paul, stay there and I’ll be back in a minute.” Gazza was so intimidated by this bloke who had been threatening him and marking him all match, that he actually stood where he was until Vinnie came back from the throw!
What was it like being in the Crazy Gang?
Like being in the eye of a tornado – the world is spinning at 100 miles an hour around you, but in the middle of it the air is really still. It was our lives and we thought nothing of it – coming in, getting your clothes cut up. You’d get all your socks cut up until you ran out. You ended up dressing like a tramp, so if you had your clothes ruined, it was nothing expensive. Then there was setting fire to things, cutting the electricity off in the other dressing room... You think, ‘ Did we really do that?’ We did, and we were encouraged by the management to be more crazy. Sometimes we took it too far, like Vinnie’s interview before the FA Cup final when he said he’d tear off Kenny Dalglish’s head. But Vinnie was the pantomime villain.
How did you rate your chances going into that 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool?
We were quite confident. People say it’s one of the big giant- killings, but it was our second season in the top tier. In the first, we’d come 6th and won 2- 1 at Anfield, and we remained the last team to win there in a league game before the final. In the second season, we’d come 7th and won at Old Trafford. Liverpool were a great team, but we fancied ourselves against anybody – even though we weren’t well funded like Wigan when they surprised Manchester City. Our average was just over 5,000 in our debut top- flight season, and the wage budget reflected that.
What are your memories of your winner?
We’d played Chelsea a few weeks before and I’d scored a similar goal, so obviously a scout hadn’t done his homework. Dennis Wise was a brilliant set- play taker and we were a huge team. If we were going to score, it was likely to be that way. We’d practised set- plays until 5pm the previous day. We were possibly the only team who curled our free- kicks towards goal rather than away from it – the ball came in, just missed Corky’s head, I got a glancing touch and it went into the far corner.
Do the celebration pictures still have pride of place at home?
I ran to celebrate with Dennis and he jumped on me, so every picture I’ve got is of Dennis’ backside covering my face – there’s no shot of me celebrating! I spoke to Corky after and he said, “Your celebration was rubbish. If I’d scored, I was going to run around the corner flag” – like Roger Milla later did at the World Cup. Corky said, “No matter how bad the goal was, everyone would have remembered me forever because of the celebration. You just did a silly twirl, then finished up with Dennis on top of you. There’s no picture of your face, the goal was crap, no one will remember it…” Little did he know at the time!
“I’D SCORED 10 GOALS, BUT DIDN’T GET A £ 500 BONUS AS ONE CAME IN AN ABANDONED MATCH”
Lawrie contributed to ‘ The Crazy Gang’, part of the BT Sport Films series. BT Sport subscribers can watch it online now via BT Sport’s website