to the Premier League. Following Sunderland's promotion to the top flight Lawrence found himself in and out of the first team squad for the first few months of the 2005–06 season. Despite this, Lawrence still made 23 starts and 10 substitute appearances for the club, scoring against Fulham, Chelsea, and Sunderland's bitter rivals Newcastle United at St James' Park. Although the season ended in disaster for Sunderland, who were relegated with a then record low of 15 points, Lawrence ended the season as runner up to teammate Dean Whitehead for the annual Player of the Year award, and was seen as one of Sunderland's better performers. Lawrence and Whitehead both signed new contracts in August 2006. Stoke City Lawrence joined Stoke City initially on loan in November 2006 after falling out of favour with Roy Keane with the deal becoming permanent in January 2007. He made a fine start to his Stoke career scoring against Cardiff City and Ipswich Town. In 2006–07 Stoke narrowly missed out on the play-offs finishing in 8th position. In 2007–08 Lawrence played in 44 matches scoring 15 goals as Stoke gained promotion to the Premier League in 2nd position. Lawrence struck a great partnership with Ricardo Fuller and the pair scored a combined total of 30 goals with Lawrence winning the player of the year award. Lawrence scored Stoke's first home goal in the Premier League in 2008 when he scored a penalty against Aston Villa. However Lawrence injured himself when he tripped over his pet Labrador damaging his ankle. He had to undergo ankle surgery to repair a tear in the ligament. He returned from injury towards the end of the season and scored winning goals in games against Blackburn Rovers and Hull City, with the latter securing Stoke's survival. Lawrence signed a new contract at Stoke in July 2009 keeping him at the Britannia Stadium until 2013. Lawrence found himself in and out of the side in 2009–10 making 25 league appearances of which 11 were as a substitute and he scored once against Hull City in April. After the season ended Lawrence stated that he expected to leave Stoke during the summer of 2010. Portsmouth On 31 August, the summer transfer window deadline day, Lawrence and Stoke teammate Dave Kitson were a part of an exchange deal, which sent Portsmouth defender Marc Wilson to the Potters, with the pair moved in the