Tommy Lawrence dead aged 77 – Liverpool confirm legendary goalkeeper passes away

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Tommy Lawrence dead aged 77 – Liverpool confirm legendary goalkeeper passes away

LIVERPOOL legend Tommy Lawrence has died aged 77, the club has confirmed.

The Scotsman was Bill Shankley’s first choice goalkeeper in the 1960s and made 390 appearances for the club over 14 years.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence has passed away aged 77BBC

He won two league titles at Anfield while pioneering the sweeper-keeper style of play and was also part of the team which won their first ever FA Cup in 1965.

Lawrence also won three caps for Scotland and shocked viewers of the BBC three years ago as he unexpectedly cropped up previewing the Merseyside derby.

Reporter Stuart Flinders was getting predictions from shoppers on the street when randomly he started talking to Lawrence.

Flinders asked: “Did you remember the 1967 FA Cup tie?”

Lawrence then replied to the shock of the journalist: “I did. I played in it. I was the goalkeeper for Liverpool.”

Tommy Lawrence won two league titles and Liverpool’s first-ever FA CupHulton Archive - Getty

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Tommy Lawrence (far right) was Bill Shankley’s first-choice goalkeeper for LiverpoolPA:Empics Sport

The video went viral with more than 8 million views and shot Lawrence back into the spotlight for being one of the first sweeper-keepers.

Explaining his sweeper-keeper style that took football by storm, Lawrence said: “Shankly said: ‘Right Tommy, you’re not playing on the six yard line.

“When the ball’s on the halfway line, you’ve got to be on the 18-yard line. If the ball shoots through, you’ve got to be out to kick it – a sort of stopper’.”

Lawrence added. “At first I was frightened to death. We did it at Melwood a few times, then we tried at Anfield. Well, I’m standing there and the Kop is giving me some stick. ‘Get back on your line!’, they’re all yelling. No goalkeeper did that in those days. I thought ‘Oh my God’.

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