Liam Lawrence

First leg of Play offs are next Tues/Weds. Will the appeal be before then?

No, which creates the problem of whether to suspend the ban or not. Fenerbahce are set to face Arsenal while appealing against a ban for match-fixing so there is precedent, but Fenerbahce are on their first appeal whereas Metalist have been banned already and lost their appeal. The papers seem to think they'll get a reprieve but in reality I don't think we know what UEFA will do. I'd lean towards them upholding the ban.

Lawrence started for PAOK tonight as they went on to draw 1-1 away to Schalke in the Champions League play-off round. He was replaced by Kace after 62 minutes, however. Valuable away goal for PAOK, that.

Damn you, I was about to post this. Great result for PAOK, though it will still be a huge battle for them to deal with Schalke's firepower in Thessaloniki.

A mundane predictable Bundesliga team is bound for elimination.
Go on the Greeks.
Power to PAOK

PAOK's fans were easily the best and most passionate visiting crowd I've seen in Tallaght. Delighted to see them doing well and Liam too.

How did he play?

Liam Lawrence's PAOK take on Schalke tonight in the Champions League play-off round. They've given themselves a fantastic opportunity to qualify with an away goal in the 1-1 first-leg draw in Germany. The game is to be played behind closed doors, however, which surely won't help the home team. Remains to be seen whether Lawrence will start. He started the first leg but I'm not sure he's nailed down a regular starting place this season.

Misses the tie due to injury.

Schalke in front, by dint of a flukey dubious goal.

Salpingidis should have evened it up with an equally dubious goal but he missed the ball.

edit: Goal PAOK! No disputing that one.

Great goal. PAOK have started the second half very well.

Only the boring monotonous sound of drunken boisterous uncultured germans coming from inside Paok's stadium. What did PAOK do to deserve that? the ultimate crime - not pay their bills to a german bank?

Crowd violence apparently. Although all the violence so far has been meted out by Schalke defender Jermaine Jones (classic German name there) who's been sent off for two yellows.

edit: Drexler scores. Game over, I think. Awful defending.

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Originally Posted by geysir

What did PAOK do to deserve that?

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The punishment was dished out due to crowd trouble between PAOK and Rapid Vienna fans when the clubs met in last season's Europa League:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVyer-9tguU

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Crowd violence apparently. Although all the violence so far has been meted out by Schalke defender Jermaine Jones (classic German name there) who's been sent off for two yellows.

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Jermaine is indeed a good name, I think the father must have had a sense of humour.

2-2 now, Schalke have been defending awfully. Cue 12 minutes of PAOK pressure before Schalke scrape through on away goals.

If it ends up like this (3-3), it still goes to extra time, doesn't it?
from Clueless in Reykjavik.

No, away goals is applied after 180 minutes. Referee doing his bit by refusing to award Stoch what looked like a penalty.

That's that so. PAOK didn't commit any defenders even when they needed a goal and yet somehow they still got caught for pace in behind.

Bah, it doesn't matter anyway; 3-2 to Schalke on the night now.

PAOK drawn alongside AZ Alkmaar, Maccabi Haifa and Neil Lennon's favourite club Shakhter Karagandy.

Did Lawrence play tonight in PAOK's win? I saw him against Schalke on the telly in a restaurant in Portugal a few weeks ago....he looked as good as, or better, than Cox out on the right wing.....

Wouldn't mind to see him back involved at all. I like his per-so-nal-it-y.

No, he's still out with a calf problem.

PAOK report he's returned to training this week: http://www.paokfc.gr/en/news/everybody-back-training/

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Originally Posted by Yard of Pace

Did Lawrence play tonight in PAOK's win? I saw him against Schalke on the telly in a restaurant in Portugal a few weeks ago....he looked as good as, or better, than Cox out on the right wing.....

Wouldn't mind to see him back involved at all. I like his per-so-nal-it-y.

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Yip.

His dropping from squads and teh inclusion of others never really made sense to me.

Especially considering how good he was both on the pitch and attitude-wise when he first joined the squad.

His free kick to Whelan for the first goal against Italy in Croker and his perfomance in Paris will always stand out for me.

Yep, I'll add my name to the list of those with a soft spot for Lawrence. New manager should certainly look at him again and if his form warrants inclusion in the squad then I'd be happy enough to have him in there. Served us well in the time he was involved.

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Originally Posted by Junior

Yep, I'll add my name to the list of those with a soft spot for Lawrence. New manager should certainly look at him again and if his form warrants inclusion in the squad then I'd be happy enough to have him in there. Served us well in the time he was involved.

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Liam was magnificent against Armenia in Yerevan in Sept 2010. If it wasn't for him (and Fahey's goal) we would have lost or drawn that game. It was a barnstorming performance that was all the more remarkable considering he was frozen out at Stoke at the time... sadly is lack of gametime at Stoke caught up with him by the time the Russia match came around the following month.

In talks with Barnsley according to SSN: We are hearing that Barnsley are in talks with Liam Lawrence about bringing the former Stoke and Portsmouth midfielder back to England from PAOK. The 32-year-old has been in Greece since August 2012.

looks set to complete the move today: https://twitter.com/SkySportsPeteO/s...49337747705856

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Barnsley are poised to sign Liam Lawrence on a free transfer after he secured his release from Greek side PAOK. #barnsleyfc

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confirmed, signed until the end of the season: http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/art...s-1297445.aspx

Lawrence criticises Trap for having blamed him for Kerzkakov's goal against us during the 3-2 loss at home to Russia: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29949016.html

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Originally Posted by Garry Doyle

Liam Lawrence has strongly criticised Giovanni Trapattoni for hastily ending his international career.

Whereas most Irish players are locked to a default setting where any mention of Trapattoni's name must be accompanied by a reference to his decorative CV, Lawrence, whose brief Irish career reached its conclusion in June 2011, refused to doff his cap.

Instead, the bitterness of his fall-out with the Italian became clear as he offered a different spin to the incident which led to Russia's first goal in their 3-2 Euro 2012 qualifier win in Dublin, and which effectively led to the end of his time as an Irish international.

"I don't care who he is or how good a manager he is, the point he was making was ridiculous," said Lawrence in reference to Trapattoni's criticism of him for failing to block Andrei Arshavin's free-kick.

"There was me and another fella in the wall when they were taking a free. I jumped – and the ball sneaked through the wall. It then went to the back post, should have been cleared, on at least two occasions, before (Alexander Kerzkakov) scored. And he blamed me. At the time, I just let him have his say."

But yesterday, after three silent years, Lawrence hit back. "I never wanted to disrespect the Irish public or the Irish coaches at a time when we were fighting to qualify. I didn't want to put a cloud over the squad. Keeping my mouth shut was the best option."

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I seem to remember him being inexplicably subbed in that game. Am I remembering that correctly?
Though given the article above it's not as inexplicable as it was to me as I stared down from the East Stand.

Given the state of the midfield in that game and Whelan being all at sea, I couldn't get my head around it.

He picked up an injury in the game against Russia didn't he? He was challenging for the ball and strained his leg when raising it high. He had to pull out of the Slovakia game. He played in the Carling cup friendlies later on.

Wins a penalty tonight - welcome back Liam

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Originally Posted by geysir

He picked up an injury in the game against Russia didn't he? He was challenging for the ball and strained his leg when raising it high. He had to pull out of the Slovakia game. He played in the Carling cup friendlies later on.

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That's ringing a bell. Near the East Stand I think?

Scored for the tykes this avo. Put them 2-0 up.

Goal!
Goal! Yeovil Town 0, Barnsley 2. Liam Lawrence (Barnsley) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Chris O'Grady.

Gone to Shrewsbury Town.

That's a super signing for them.

Thought he might aim a bit higher than League 2.

Maybe he has no choice.

Sad to see at 32. Seems like the money may not be flowing around the English league.