Lawrence McMenemy MBE (born 26 July 1936) is an English retired football coach, best known for his spell as manager of Southampton. He is rated in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war English football. Playing career McMenemy was born in Gateshead. After serving in the Coldstream Guards he began his footballing career with Newcastle United although he never appeared in their first team. He moved to Gateshead in the late 1950s, joining the club after they had left the Football League. An injury ended his career in 1961, but he moved into coaching instead, spending three years in that role at Gateshead. Football management Bishop Auckland In 1964 he was appointed manager of non-league Bishop Auckland and transformed them from a struggling side into Northern League champions and also took them to the third round of the FA Cup. Sheffield Wednesday and Doncaster Rovers McMenemy then moved to Sheffield Wednesday where he spent two years as a coach before he got his big break as manager of Doncaster Rovers where he remained until May 1971, winning the Fourth Division Championship in 1968–69. Grimsby Town He then became manager of Grimsby Town, where he won a Fourth Division championship. In July 1973 he left Blundell Park to become assistant manager at Southampton. Southampton In November 1973, four months after joining the Saints as assistant manager, he was promoted to the role of manager. He was unable to keep them in the First Division that season, but the board kept faith in him to lift the club back out of the Second Division. In 1976, McMenemy guided Southampton, then in the Second Division, to an FA Cup Final victory over Manchester United. It was widely predicted before the game that United would easily win (one pundit said the score would go into double figures). However Southampton, who were in the Second Division at the time (the current Championship) and had a much older team, put up a stern challenge against United. The only goal of the game was scored by Bobby Stokes with just seven minutes to go, and captain Peter Rodrigues received the FA Cup from the Queen. They were the second club in four seasons to win the FA Cup from outside the First Division of English football after Sunderland in 1973 and only one more side from outside the top