Lawrence tells Tooting & Mitcham to keep calm and win

The Terrors were denied a vital win on Saturday as relegation rivals Walton & Hersham equalised Tyrone Berry’s opener with the last kick of the game to claim a 1-1 draw and leave Tooting six points above the bottom two with four games to play.

Another relegation-threatened side is next up as they go to Corinthian Casuals this weekend knowing a win will more than likely kill off the chances of being dragged into the drop zone and Lawrence, who as well as playing is assistant manager, wants everyone to think positively.

“If we start getting on the negative side of it people start getting nervous,” he said.

“We have to be positive and play our normal game and if we keep playing the way we are playing then we are going to get a win.

“I would be worried if we weren’t creating chances, but we are and if we had concentrated a second longer on Saturday we would have won.

“It would have been a massive three points but now we have another big game and it’s going to be another battle and we have to stand up to them.”

Lawrence, who played football in the Premier League for Leicester City and Bradford City, turned 43 last month but has no plans to hang up his boots just yet.

“I train two or three times a day and I just take it each game as it comes,” he added.

“I am going to go as long as I can as I love football, I love playing it. I don’t think these youngsters appreciate it enough sometimes, they think it is going to go on forever.”

Lawrence and manager Phil Simpson are only in charge of team affairs on an interim basis until the end end of season but Lawrence would like to see Simpson given the post full time.

“I think Phil should be given the job, he knows the game inside out,” he said.

“At the moment we are trying to get through to next season and then we will change the way the club is set up with players. We already do more work on the training ground now to get ready for Saturday.”