Martin Lawlor

[max power]

martin was good enough to keep us in the premier division and he actually signed barry, nuff said.

[Xlex]

was the instigator in getting Darragh Sheridan... and some unbelieveably average footballers are on big money so i'd really wonder about what the great footballers are on...

Would anyone take Macca (in place of Barry) back after all the football he's played since he left...


to the tune of the maccerna,...

fcuk McNally we've got Barry...
fcuk McNally we've got Barry...
fcuk McNally we've got Barry...
Hey Barry Ferguson.....

[el insider]

lawlor got most of our top class back four.all matthews had to do was sign them.ferguson,silke,dillon and he kept us up with a tiny squad and that meant he had to put mumbles in at centre half so i hought he was good manager.

[Longfordian]

In response to those praising Lawlor if he'd have stayed we would have had no team for the start of last season..Matthews was the contact to Barry Ferguson not Lawlor,he coached him as a youngster at Home Farm, Lawlor just signed the contract topping any other offer he received and there were a few, Darragh Sheridan was fuming after Lawlor spread false stories about him (no, not that he was a good player!), he was determined to get rid of Digger and Eric as well, signed two keepers to contracts as big and bigger than Digger's...i could go on and on, but i'll just say a certain memer of the coaching staff described him as a "nutcase"..in short not a good manager in my opinion..but then everyone has their own ideas.

[max power]

your just on about hear say, show us how he was going to get rid of digger and eric, what we said happened, he kept us in the premier division. fact he signed barry, fact he kept us in the premier, . no hear say there. give the credit where the credit is due, you have no way of telling what value the contracts were signed,

xlex i think we have one of those s**t stirrers you love so much, so i'll leave it to you to set The Longfordian stright !!!!!

[Longfordian]

Well you may call it hearsay but the people i heard it from are those at the heart of the matter, i dont think it would be fair to the people concerned to say what they told me and how i heard certain things, especially in such a public way. Suffice to say i believe what i said is the truth. You can't call someone a **** stirrer just because you have a different opinion to them on a matter. If you've ever read any of my posts on other matters i've never tried to stir **** before, why start now?..

[De Town]

Longfordian, it is just a rumour that Lawlor was a nutcase

[drummer boy]

lawlor was a good man and he cared about longford town and football alot more than our bank manager. after the finn harps game in ballyboffey i was standing outside the dressing room as many of us were and he told the man at the door to let me in because i was his son and before i got into the dressing room he told me to bang the sh**e of the drum. he had some very good ideas, remember the yoga. i dont like matthews because he has a ordinary style of football, but its starting to improve, and he never speaks to his supporters,and since he came to longford he has enough defenders to do two teams and all good ones.

[Xlex]

I know Longfordian and he's not a **** stirrer, but I'm not about to agree with everything he has said.

Longford were to have a squad registered by the close of business on the Wednesday before last season was due to start, we had something like five players registered on Monday night... Lawlor was sacked and Matthews and O'Callaghan went about and signed the rest of the players up in time for the FAI to register our panel for the first series of games... On;ly for the two lads we would have had a U-21 side out... This is the way Lawlor operated, he either had bad communication or just a way of rubbing people up... it is appreciated that he kept the town in the premier, We should never forget him for that, thank him at any opertunity you get.

With Darragh Sheridan, he had agreed a contract with Lawlor but he never heard a word from Lawlor and he thought that the deal was dead, he went to Rovers and played some trial games. Lawlor came out and said the deal was off due to Sheridan...

Martin Lawlor never asked or tried to persuade Stewie Byrne to stay, it has been said that if a half decent offer had been put on the table he would have signed...

Two keepers were given deals which were better than Diggers, as far as I've heard Digger wasn't one of the players signed before Matthews intervention. Lawlor had a problem with Diggers weight and he badgered him over it, Digger the man didn't need that grief...

Credit where credit is due, fair play to Lawlor on keeping us up... Matthews might not be Stephen Kenny but I wouldn't swap him for anyone in this league at the moment... Kenny included...

If Matthews isn't supporter friendly it's not our business, to be honest I think Kenny's departure was worse because supporters felt close to him... It wasn't that he was a particularly good manager... (a whole other days rant)

On drummerboys yoga point, I have never seen Vinny Perth look as good as he did coming back that season...

[Xlex]

On another thing, if you think Matthews has a poor way of playing then I really don't think Lawlor would have had us playing anything better, Matthews has delivered us to fifth in last years league and he is is a position to do that again, a good cup run and fifth would be a quality season...

[max power]

it seems that everyone agrees that martin wasn't a bad manager, rumours don't hold water. facts speak , he kept us in the premier division, he signed barry, in the time he was there he had a better league record than stephen kenny in the season. he did well and i feel was treated badly by the board.

xlex, i said some thing i was told a few weeks ago and you called me a s**t if you can back up what you have said below lets hear it. so on monday he had no squad but by wenesday matthews had, who's to say he couldn't have had his squad together in time ?????????????????

wasn't he right to ignore sheridan, if he did maybe we would never have been lumbered with him at all.

do you really think Stewie Byrne would have stayed, why waste time trying to do something you have no hope of doing, did the board approch stewie either, its their job too to keep players at the club.

and there you go yourself "as far as i've heard", hear say, something you said has no place on this forum ??????

[Xlex]

I can't back it up, I'm not trying to either. We have spun of topic and landed on Lawlor. Now Longfordian has told us the story and I have told you what I've heard (much the same), Macy will pop on here and give you pretty much the same story... but at the end of the day we had a squad registered because the FAI went out of the way to have us registered... not because we left it until the last minute. Just ask someone who will be straight with you and they will tell you...

Macy feels very strongly about not approching Stewie, he can go into that

You hinted at me having a go at Longfordian but I can't, he knows more that anyone I recognise on these boards and he told the same story I heard... It's in the past anyway. But as I said credit to Lawlor for the job he had to do when he came to Longford...

On Sheridan, I think you're very right there... and I see your point on the 'as I've heard' I accused you of before. I'm not claiming to be the know it all here but I suppose I'm only backing up Longfordian with what I've heard...

[Macy]

Lawlor should never be forgiven for letting Stewie go, and everyone must face facts about the situation we found ourselves in at the start of last season.....

The fact is Stewie had a decent job, and is no doubt on less money now as a full timer than he would have been if we'd put together any kind of decent package for him.... We have never replaced him, for which Matthews may shoulder some of the blame, but we shouldn't have had to. We simply haven't got the money to attract that quality - but we had a loyal player on the books who owed the club his break.... The current team with Stuey in the middle would be seriously challenging for the title...

Anyone who thinks we would be playing better football under Lawlor is living in La La Land....

Personally I'm happier with Matthews than Kenny... That's backed up with our best ever finish and best every squad. It could be argued that Spock was unprofessional in getting too close to many fans. Not necessarily a criticism - but having a chat with him and his ambitions for the club a matter of months before he walked out made it all the harder to take.....

[el insider]

whay ever was his problem with digger. digger is a longford legend

[Xlex]

5'8'' overweight...

the latter being lawlors problem

[drummer boy]

i know i was speaking for lawler but he also could have held on to maccer but he didnt even offer him a contract, on the way back on the bus from the harps game maccer bald his eyes out (so im told) because he didnt want to go, remember all the rumours at the time of him going to bohs. Lawlor wasant exactly an expert on the contract and business side of things, but he seemed to know his stuff and had good ideas.

[Xlex]

Originally posted by drummer boy
Lawlor wasant exactly an expert on the contract and business side of things, but he seemed to know his stuff and had good ideas.

can't say that he knew much about contracts, I think Lawlor took it as done and dusted that Stewie and Macca were going which was incorrect... Whatever about Macca we haven't come close to replacing Stewie... he had good forward ideas like Yoga but overall its naive to say he wasn't hot at contracts and he knew his stuff all in one breath...