Laurie Brown

Brown was born in Shildon, County Durham. He trained as a cabinet-maker, and worked at Doggarts department store in Bishop Auckland. He began his football career with Shildon, and appeared for Woking and Fulham, before returning to the north-east with Bishop Auckland, where his goalscoring – he contributed five in a 9–1 Northern League defeat of Ferryhill Athletic in November 1958 – attracted reported interest from major professional clubs. In the last couple of months of the 1958–59 season, Brown made three appearances in the Football League Fourth Division as an amateur for Darlington before returning to Bishop Auckland. His goalscoring continued: in December 1959, he scored nine as the Durham FA beat their East Riding counterparts 11–0. In January 1960, the Daily Mirror reported that he was delaying turning professional with Manchester United because he wanted to play at the Olympics, which was then an amateur competition. Brown made his debut for the England Amateur XI on 5 March 1960 against West Germany, and made his last appearance in September, shortly before he turned professional. He played in three Olympic qualifiers, and captained the Great Britain team in the Olympic tournament proper in Rome. The British team failed to progress to the knockout stage and came eighth overall. On his return to England he signed as an amateur for Fourth Division Northampton Town. Although heavily linked with Newcastle United, he turned professional with Northampton in October 1960,…