foot to a good enough standard to be considered a two-footed player. His greatest strength though was his ability to head the ball with power and accuracy, as he possessed muscular legs to give himself a strong jump and long hang-time, and was also able to time his jumps to perfection. Stanley Matthews surmised that "Quite simply, Tommy was the greatest header of the ball I ever saw." Lawton was never booked throughout his career. Coaching career and later life An Arsenal director helped Lawton to secure the position of the player-manager at Southern League side Kettering Town. He took up the role at the club on wages of £1,500 a year in the summer of 1956. At the helm he thereafter signed several footballers such as Jim Standen of Arsenal, Amos Moss of Aston Villa, Jack Wheeler who played for Huddersfield Town and Brentford's Jack Goodwin. He was also successful in bringing to Kettering Fulham's Bob Thomas, Harry McDonald who was previously with Crystal Palace and Sunderland's Geoff Toseland. During his debut season as manager, 1956–1957, Kettering found themselves ten points clear at the top of the table by Christmas. As a result of this success, in January 1956 he turned down an approach from Notts County. Lawton then went on to foster Kettering towards their winning of the league title in 1956–57 by eight points. Out of Kettering's 106 league goals, Lawton scored 15. He was appointed as Notts County manager in May 1957, controversially replacing caretaker-manager Frank Broome. Broome, who had steered the club away from being relegated from the Second Division, was installed as his assistant manager. He found it tedious making new signings due to financial constraints on the part of the club. He did though take on forwards Jeff Astle and Tony Hateley as apprentices, who would both go on to have long careers in the First Division. Lawton agreed to go without his wages for six months so as to improve the club's finances. County were however relegated at the end of the 1957–58 season, finishing one point short of safety, and Lawton was sacked. He received a total of just three months pay for his time at the club, having only a verbal offer of a three-year contract to fall back on, and nothing in writing. After being sacked as Notts County manager, Lawton ran the Magna Charta public house in Lowdham