Laurie Brown

A cabinet maker by trade he worked as a joiner at Doggarts’ store in Bishop Auckland and started his football career at Darlington in 1957 before briefly moving to Woking followed by a return in 1960 to the north-east to join local amateur side Bishop Auckland, who he always maintained was the best club he played with. He then played as a defender in all three Great Britain games at the Roma Olympics where he was also the team captain. He then turned professional with Northampton Town and in 33 League games scored 21 goals. He toured with the English FA to Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the USA before he was snapped up by Arsenal for £35,000 in 1961 and in 1964 he was one of the few players to move across north London when he went from Arsenal to Tottenham Hotspur for £40,000 and on his début for his new club in a 3-1 win over Arsenal. He joined Norwich City in 1966 when he was signed by his former Darlington boss Lol Morgan and was appointed club captain. After two seasons at Carrow Road he joined Bradford Park Avenue and was player-manager for a brief spell and was with the club when they were voted out of the Football League in 1970. Brown played over 300 Football League games in ten years and later became player-manager at Altrincham and King’s Lynn before returning to his native north-east to manage Stockton and later run a pub at Shildon, his home town, before moving to Newton Aycliffe when he drove a milk tanker.

NOTE: Some sources say Brown did not play at the 1960 Olympics, but he did play in all three matches, Les Brown was the non-starter. We have confirmed this in multiple sources. Both had the same surname and initial, hence the confusion by other sources.