From Sunderland and West Ham to Plains Farm FC and coaching the next generation: The story of Carl Lawson

Carl Lawson’s story is one I’m very familiar with and feels very close to home even though it’s 10 years since we last spoke.

Carl, 29, went to school at Thornhill, as did I. We were in the same year, born in the same month (October) and had many of the same classes together. I remember sitting beside him in year seven for Mrs Todd’s French class and PE lessons with Mr Heelbeck. They were good times.

Carl was a nice guy and still is. We weren’t hugely close but we shared a lot of the same friends during secondary school. One thing we didn’t share, though, was footballing prowess.

In truth, Carl was miles ahead of everyone (including myself) in the school without exception and was destined for greater things than the measly inter-house football tournaments he easily dominated. Like myself, Carl was also a big Sunderland fan and his boyhood club came knocking when he was just 10.

“I just wanted to soak it all up when I arrived,” he remembers. “If you caught a glimpse of a first-team player, you were buzzing. Around that era, Roy Keane was the manager. That was big. He would come into the lessons when we were doing Maths and English at the academy.

“Seeing him walking in like that was crazy. That huge figure in terms of what he had won and achieved everyone in the room was like ‘Oh my god’.” That was the problem though, they were always changing managers. After Keane and (Steve) Bruce, there was a new manager every year. Year after year, change after change.”

That was to prove a major problem for Sunderland’s youngsters during that era. Carl progressed well earning several contracts at the Academy of Light and played regularly for the club’s youth teams and reserve sides alongside the likes of Jordan Pickford, Lynden Gooch and George Honeyman. To play football professionally, you also need some luck... something the former striker found hard to come by during his time at Sunderland.

“You talk about luck,” Carl laughs. “I had a broken foot. I always felt like I did well to bounce back from what I had. It was always hit a bit of form and then I would pick up another injury. I came back from the foot injury and then I had a really bad back problem while I was still growing.

“They were talking about operating on me but I didn’t want that as I thought I was way too young. I ended up just waiting it out. I had really bad pain at 17.

“My best time at Sunderland came under Robbie Stockdale, who later went onto the first team under Gus Poyet. Everyone goes on like football is the greatest thing ever and it is. You are playing for your boyhood club, the club you love but there’s a lot that goes on in the background. For me, there have been more downs and ups.

One of the ups came in pre-season against Hartlepool United with Lawson scoring a goal for Poyet at The Vic.

“Having that opportunity was great,” Carl remembers. “The first team had struggled first half and there wasn’t a great deal in the game in terms of chances. I scored and it was a surreal moment. It was a proper game with thousands of fans there. Scoring that goal and having your family there was brilliant.

“I remember Poyet saying that we had to do it again against Boston United. He told us, ‘Let's see if you can win that game.’ We ended up drawing 1-1. I ended up with four first-team games that summer, we’d won three and drawn one in the space of 10 days which is some going. That was my best time and best stint.

“John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Lee Cattermole, Phil Bardsley - I can’t speak highly enough of those players. Catts is a local lad. The rest came through the Manchester United system. Some of them were Champions League winners. You want those people around you to soak things up.

“They were all under scrutiny in terms of how the club was at that time and the relegation battles but I couldn’t fault them, to be honest.”

The injuries and Sunderland’s managerial merry-go-round hindered Carl’s progress at the Academy of Light. The club’s season-to-season goal of avoiding the drop at all costs didn’t foster the clearest pathway from the youth ranks into the first-team for youngsters.

“I also did my ACL,” Carl remembers when I ask how his Sunderland career came to an end. “But I came back and I was flying. I was playing some of my best football. I felt better. I don’t know what it was. Even though I had to slightly alter my game.

“I thought I may get a chance towards the end of the season because I had started scoring but nothing came of it. I was 23 and was offered another contract. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to push on. Like a lot of lads, I was sort of pushed to the wayside. I was sort of just turning up to train.

“There was a lot going on at the club as well. The year I left was the year Sunderland got relegated. I could see loads of changes happening. Unfortunately, I was released but there wasn’t any program to help the released players, which a lot of clubs do now. In the kindest possible way, I didn’t receive any help at all.”

Carl would go on to have trials at West Ham and Middlesbrough, impressing at both clubs before stints in non-league with Blyth, Whitby, Guisborough, Consett - where he would make an appearance at Wembley - and Sunderland RCA.

Football, you could say, has come full circle with Carl now occasionally playing on Sunday league fields with Plains Farm FC having started as a junior for Fulwell in the Russell Foster League before signing for Sunderland.

“It was a few lads we went to school with,” Carl laughs when I ask about turning out for Plains Farm. "They asked me to play a few Sunday games just to see where I was at. The opposition wasn’t best pleased when I turned up!"

Carl admits that injuries - the latest being a joint issue - have prompted him to play less and less over the years. Far from resting on his laurels, though, Carl has set up a coaching service for young stars, which can be found by following this link with the former Sunderland man offering bespoke sessions to budding players.

“That is why I want to crack on with the coaching," Carl says while reflecting on his injury. "I have been all the way through the system. I have played against the likes of Declan Rice, Raheem Sterling, Luke Shaw, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. I could rattle names off all night.

“I have so much experience, maybe not of first-team games but everything else in football and the system. I played in the EFL Trophy. Not playing now has given me a platform to go and coach.

"Getting the levels I got to, I know when you have to raise your game and up the tempo. I can pass that on. I want to try and create an environment where they can come and enjoy themselves and express themselves and if they feel better, I have a lot of contacts in the game to push players towards."

I ask Carl how he feels in hindsight about his career. The near misses and bad luck would be enough to turn anyone bitter.

“Unfortunately, that is just how it goes. Some people go all their lives and don’t earn a professional contract but I did. To have the experiences I have in the stadiums I have. Some people can only dream of that!

"I had some brilliant times with some brilliant people but sometimes it just doesn't work out but that is football for you. I now hope I can pass on my knowledge to kids that can use it and go further than I did."