Larry Lloyd

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Laurence Valentine Lloyd (born 6th October, 1948 in Bristol, England) was a footballer, a burly and tough central defender who won honours for both Bill Shankly's Liverpool and Brian Clough's all-conquering Nottingham Forest side of the late 1970s.

[edit] Life and playing career

Lloyd won the League championship, League Cup and European Cup with Forest, the first of which came when he was already at the near-veteran age of 29. Less than a decade earlier, he seemed set for major honours in the game when he joined Liverpool.

Hometown club Bristol Rovers accepted a £50,000 bid for Lloyd in the April of 1969 with manager Bill Shankly looking for a long-term successor to ageing skipper and defender Ron Yeats. Lloyd broke into the team in 1969 making his debut on the 27th September in a league game at The Hawthorns, Liverpool took a share of the spoils drawing with West Bromwich Albion 2-2, by the following year Lloyd was a regular as Shankly underwent a major rebuilding of the side, finding more new players of Lloyd's age.

Lloyd partnered one of the players that survived Shankly cull captain Tommy Smith with some success, the pair were at the heart of the defence that took Liverpool to the 1971 F.A Cup final, unfortunately, it wasn't the result that Lloyd and rest of the Reds wanted as they lost 2-1 after extra time to Arsenal who had already won the league title. This was arguably the hardest central defensive partnership in English football at the time, and Lloyd's own strength and battle-hardened nature earned him recognition for England.

Sir Alf Ramsey gave Larry his international debut on the 19th May '71 in a British Home Championship match against Wales, the game was played at Wembley and finished 0-0, Lloyd should have felt at home as team-mates Chris Lawler, Emlyn Hughes and Smith all started the game.

1972 saw Lloyd score his first goal for the Reds, it came in the 3-0 league win over Manchester City at Anfield on the 26th February, his goal was the first of the 3 and came in the 37th minute, Kevin Keegan (53rd) and Bobby Graham (65th) completed the scoring.

As Liverpool won the League and UEFA Cup double in 1973, Lloyd astonished everyone by not missing a single minute of the 54 matches played in the whole season. The following year he suffered an injury, lost his place to the up-and-coming Phil Thompson and missed out on victory in the F.A Cup final against Newcastle United.

Shankly quit that summer and successor Bob Paisley decided to keep with the youngster Thompson, and Liverpool fans were sad but understanding of the situation when Lloyd was sold to Coventry City on the 15th August '74. Though still not quite 26 years of age, it was perceived that Lloyd was dropping down a level in football and would not achieve any more major successes.

Yet in October 1976, the ever-astute Brian Clough, acting on Peter Taylor's advice and snapped up Lloyd for a bargain £60,000, after an initial loan period, with Forest chasing promotion to the top flight in English football. He made his Forest bow on the 2nd October in a league match against Hull City, it wasn't a debut to remember as Forest lost 1-0 away at Boothferry Park, however it didn't prevent Lloyd going on to win promotion with Forest and then clinch another League title the next season, along with a League Cup final victory, ironically against Liverpool.

In 1979, Lloyd and Forest won the European Cup and retained the League Cup, before amazingly retaining their European crown in 1980. Also that year, Lloyd earned a recall to the England squad and played in the 4-1 defeat to Wales in the Home Internationals. It was to be his fourth and final cap, coming eight years after his previous one.

Lloyd left Forest for Wigan Athletic in March 1981, where he was player-manager, he then managed Notts County. Up until 2000 Larry was a regular and outspoken pundit for local radio station Century 106 in Nottingham, covering Forest matches. He now lives in Spain.

[edit] Career details

* Liverpool F.C (1969 - 1974) - 218 appearances, 5 goals

• First Division (level 1) championship winners medal (1973)
• UEFA Cup winners medal (1973)
• F.A Cup runner-up medal (1971)
• Charity Shield runners-up medal (1971)

* Nottingham Forest F.C (1976 - 1981) - 214 appearances, 13 goals

• First Division (level 1) championship winners medal (1978)
• 2 European Cup winners medals (1979 and 1980)
• 2 League Cup winners medals (1978 and 1979)
• Charity Shield winners medal (1978)
• First Division (level 1) runners-up medal (1979)
• League Cup runners-up medal (1980)

* England (1971 - 1980) - 4 caps

[edit] External links

• Official past player at Liverpoolfc.tv
• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Former Forest players letter L at bridportred.co.uk