Lawrie Sanchez

Lawrence Philip "Lawrie" Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a Northern Irish football manager and former international football player.

The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon against Liverpool, producing one of the biggest Cup upsets.

Career highlights as a manager include taking Wycombe Wanderers on a memorable F.A. Cup run that climaxed in a semi-final against Liverpool and driving Northern Ireland from a FIFA ranking of 124th to 27th; a period during which he notched up notable results against England, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal.

Personal life

Sanchez was born in London, the son of an Ecuadorian father and a Northern Irish mother. He was educated at Presentation College, a grammar school in Reading, Berkshire, and went on to take a BSc degree in management science at Loughborough University while a Reading F.C. player. He was married to Heather, who died of cancer in 1998; the couple had a son, Jack. Lawrie now lives in Swallowfield in mid-Berkshire with his partner Claire and son Jack. In 2004, Sanchez became patron of a Northern Ireland-based cancer charity.

FA Cup

The FA Cup is an annual knockout cup competition in English football; first held in 1871–72, it is the oldest association football competition in the world. It is organised by and named after the Football Association, its official name being The Football Association Challenge Cup. For sponsorship reasons, from 2015 through to 2018 it is also known as The Emirates FA Cup. A concurrent women's tournament is also held, known as the FA Women's Cup.

The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 of the English football league system, i.e. all 92 professional clubs (the Premier League and the three levels of the The Football League), as well as several hundred "non-league" teams in Steps 1 to 6 of the National League System. A record 763 clubs competed in 2011–12. The tournament is unseeded, although a system of byes based on league level ensures most competitors enter at progressively later stages. Played over 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and final, the first six rounds are the Qualifying Competition, followed by six rounds of the Competition Proper, where 32 qualifiers meet professional sides for the first time.

Sánchez

Sánchez is a Spanish family name.

Popularity

Sanchez is the fifth most common surname in Spain.

People

Notable people who share this surname include:

FA Cup Final

The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most attended domestic football event. It is the culmination of a knockout competition among clubs belonging to The Football Association in England, although Scottish and Irish teams competed in the early years and Welsh teams regularly compete, with Cardiff City winning the Cup in 1927 and reaching the final in 2008.

The latest FA Cup Final was the final of the 2014-2015 Season which was held on 30 May 2015 at Wembley Stadium and played between Arsenal and Aston Villa with Arsenal winning 4-0 to retain the trophy after their win against Hull City in the previous final.

History

Early FA Cup Finals were held mainly in London at venues including Kennington Oval between 1874 and 1892 and Crystal Palace between 1895 and 1914. In the period from 1923 until 2000, the final was held at Wembley Stadium, English football's national stadium. From 2001–2005, the final was moved to Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, during the rebuilding of Wembley Stadium. Millennium Stadium was used again in 2006 due to construction delays in opening the new Wembley Stadium.