Thetownend.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8149282.stm

Twenty years ago he died...hadnt realised he had played for Wimbledon v Liverpool....what a great player he was,one of the best i saw...funny how a read like this reminds you of times and events long gone.

I dont remmember him at all. Like you said, hadnt realised he played in that Cup final. I dont think the media made that much of it? Because back then everything got blown up by the media for the cup final, English football's big day.

Its sad that so little film of him exists. Whilst we do moan about the over exposure and hype that surrounds football these days, it is preferable to not having footage of great players on film. Which seems to be the case here.

He was a damn good player, I was at the England game in 79 when he made his debut against Wales.

Very underated player was the "Black Flash".

Yes, fantastic player with almost Brazilianesque skill. Now, didn't he play in a League cup tie at the County Ground for WBA? I seem to remember he & Cyrille Regis were in the team - or are the years starting to take their toll of my faculties?

Think he did....also was he playing in the Trolloppe testimonial?

Well, yeah, but I don't know that future generations will actually be able to find the footage of say Ronaldo amidst the 32 tonnes of coverage of him falling out of Paris Hilton etc

All that footage will be chucked away as soon as her tits go saggy.

She'll probably keep some of it so she can remember them in their halcyon days.

It's odd how the media and football writers latch on to poor old Lawrie Cunningham. Nobody cared when he died - it wasn't deemed newsworthy.... Compare that to now when the media are happy to run full segments on thing like Landon Donovan slating Beckham (Zzzzzzzzz).

Earlier this year i posted this video as a reminder of just how good WBA where in the 70's
with the 3 Degrees (Regis,Cunningham and Batson).It was a classic game vs Man Utd.

If you haven't seen it or have forgotten about it,here it is again...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTAMsgAdsII

"putting it away with real economy" :)

I watched that game the other week when i finally got round to watching it on the big match revisited.

He was a fantastic player (from memory) but it never worked out as it should for him once he left WBA. And i had forgetten he had come on as a sub in that cup final, you would never have thought he would end up playing for Wimbledon at the end of his career with their brand of football so different to how he wanted to play.

I heard an interview with Regis and Batson on Five Live earlier in the week.They both said
that on the pitch,Cunningham was a real extrovert,but off it he was quite shy and introverted.

He got the move to Real Madrid in 79 on the back of a fantastic performance against Valencia
in the UEFA Cup.It had the Real scouts raving about him.He suffered a very serious injury whilst
at Real and he was never the same again.Regis and Batson both thought that Cunningham went
abroad at too young an age and in comparison to today's game, he didn't have the support network
that many of today's players would have.By all accounts the Real fans took to him in a big way.