Lawrence ready to put one over on old pal Hodgson

He will find them rolled into one on Tuesday night at the Memorial Stadium because lifelong friend Lennie Lawrence doubles as Bristol Rovers' director of football.

Given that both turned 60 last year, it may seem remarkable that the third-round tie is the first time in their illustrious careers they have been in direct opposition.

While Hodgson chose a route that has taken in stops at Inter Milan, Udinese, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Finland, a s well as a homecoming at Blackburn, Lawrence crafted a reputation for helping out the more prosaic names of Charlton, Middlesbrough, Bradford, Luton, Grimsby and Cardiff.

The schoolboy friends from Croydon's now defunct John Ruskin Grammar School have kept in touch throughout and — potential Cup upset notwithstanding — Lawrence believes Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed could not have chosen wiser.

Lawrence said: 'It's a great appointment. Roy's one of the world's 20 best coaches. I know all the managers and he's a top man. He's outstanding in his single-mindedness and ability to improve players individually and collectively.

'Look at his record. He took Switzerland to the World Cup in 1994 and qualified for Euro 96 with them. He's been at Inter Milan. He lasted longer with the Emirates than anybody else in their history and he gained more points for Finland in a qualifying group that had Poland, Portugal and Serbia in it than England got in theirs.

'People might say not a lot seems to have happened at Fulham in his first month, but you've got to give him time to change a situation that hasn't been right. And he had to play Arsenal and Chelsea. The position he's inherited is extremely difficult and it'll be one of the performances of his career if he keeps them up. But he needs to get a win on the board, doesn't he, the old chap?'

Rovers have reached the fifth round just once in the past 25 years and have only gone beyond the third round on three occasions during that period. They have beaten top flight opposition only twice in that spell, Leicester in 1986 and Derby in 2002. Their best Cup runs were in 1951 and 1958 when they made the quarter-finals.

And since they finished bottom of what is now the Championship in 1993, Rovers have spent every season in England's bottom two divisions and finishing 91st in 2002.

When Hodgson and his old friend walk across the Memorial Stadium pitch to their respective dugouts tonight, Lawrence will be accompanied by Rovers manager Paul Trollope.

Unlike many other manager/director of football partnerships, this one is not for show. There is genuine trust and warmth between the pair who guided Rovers from the lower reaches of League Two to promotion last season and are eyeing a League One play-off push.

Grandiose title or not, Lawrence is loving being the wise old owl.

He added: 'If you're a director of football at a Premier League club, you could be overseeing the training ground, the youth policy, the contracts or spend half your time sitting on a plane flying round the world looking at players.

'It's different here. At a club this size, it doesn't make any sense to do that. I work closely with Trolls on the training ground, I'm on the bench at his request as his assistant, his mentor and director of football. Now, that cannot work unless the two people really, really get on. All I can say is he's young, I'm old and it's worked like a dream.

'Trolls was preparing for management when he was a player. He was at Fulham in his late 20s when Jean Tigana was there and he was writing notes on what Tigana was doing. He's got the single-mindedness you need, he's organised. When I was his age, I was running Charlton and he's a bloody sight better organised than I was then.

'I came here two years ago because I thought it was an interesting role. I said to the players when I came in, "this will be transparent. I'll do this, Trolls will do that, don't try and play one off against the other". That's how it's been.

'The partnership won't go on for ever, but we do see it as long term. The ground is being redeveloped and by the time that's finished in 18 months we'll have a Championship standard ground. It's a little adventure and we want to take it as far as it can go.'