Larry Lloyd, no-nonsense defender who twice won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest – obituary

Larry Lloyd, who has died aged 75, was an English footballer who won major domestic and European honours as a rugged, no-frills defender with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest under the larger-than-life managers Bill Shankly and Brian Clough, as well as being selected for England by Sir Alf Ramsey.

Lloyd’s international career spanned nine years but amounted to only four caps. Four years after he was first chosen he had dropped into the Second Division, yet his contribution to Forest’s meteoric rise convinced one of Ramsey’s successors, Ron Greenwood, to restore him to the national team.

Laurence Valentine Lloyd was born in Bristol on October 6 1948, the eighth of 10 children borne by his mother René. His father Tom was blind and never saw him play, which Lloyd ranked alongside his decision to sell his medals for £12,000 when he was “absolutely skint” in 2001 as his “greatest regret”.

The teenaged Lloyd, an engineering apprentice, played for Henbury Old Boys in the Bristol Downs League and represented Gloucestershire at youth level. Though he lacked pace and finesse, Bristol Rovers took a chance on his fearless tackling and aerial strength, giving him his Third Division debut in August 1968.

Lloyd stood 6ft 3in tall and weighed more than 14st. His defensive partner Stuart Taylor was 6ft 5in, leading to their being dubbed “the Twin Towers”.

Within six months, Liverpool’s chief scout, Geoff Twentyman, was impressed by Lloyd’s handling of Everton’s Joe Royle in an FA Cup tie. In April 1969 Shankly paid £55,000, a record fee for Rovers, to bring him to Anfield, where he was earmarked to succeed the veteran Ron Yeats as the rock around whom the rearguard would be rebuilt.

Lloyd was only 20 when he became a fixture in the side, playing in tandem with the equally robust Tommy Smith when Liverpool lost 2-1 to Arsenal in the 1971 FA Cup final. His form alerted Ramsey, who was searching for a dominant successor to Jack Charlton and Brian Labone. Eleven days after his Wembley disappointment he was back at the stadium facing Wales in a 0-0 draw.

Two further caps followed during the 1971-72 campaign before Ramsey settled on the more skilful Roy McFarland of Derby County. Shankly, though, picked Lloyd for all 66 of Liverpool’s competitive games as they won the double of the League Cup and Uefa Cup in 1972-73.

Lloyd’s future at Liverpool look assured after he scored what proved the decisive goal in the final of the latter competition, securing a 3-0 first-leg lead over Borussia Moenchengladbach. They lost the return 2-0 in West Germany but held out to secure the club’s first European trophy.

However, the injury which forced his substitution against Norwich City in February 1974 signalled the end of his Anfield sojourn. Phil Thompson took his place, and after Shankly resigned at the end of the season, the new manager, Bob Paisley, favoured the 20-year-old’s greater mobility and passing ability.

Lloyd later admitted: “I threw my toys out of the pram and demanded a transfer.” Coventry City paid a club-record fee of £240,000 but his time there was blighted by injury. In September 1976, on the recommendation of Clough’s assistant Peter Taylor, Forest persuaded him to drop a division by joining them on loan.

The move was made permanent for £60,000 after Clough guaranteed him an unusual signing-on fee: a washing machine. The manager duly liberated one from the City Ground without telling the laundry ladies, who were quick to berate a bemused Lloyd.

The newcomer was paired with Kenny Burns, deemed a trouble-maker at Birmingham City but described by Taylor as “the Scottish Bobby Moore” as Forest began their charge from the lower Second Division. “Nobody messed with those two,” Clough said.

After gaining promotion in Lloyd’s first season, they won the League Championship at the first attempt, also lifting the League Cup by defeating Liverpool, sweetly for Lloyd.

Clough and Taylor’s band of bargain buys, free transfers, misfits and mavericks promptly added two successive European Cups. In the second final, against Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg, Lloyd excelled despite an ankle-ligament injury. He also earned two League Cup winner’s medals.

His England recall came in May 1980 – he was paired with Phil Thompson – but ended in his substitution during a 4-1 humbling by Wales.

Lloyd had often clashed with Clough, notably for refusing to wear the club blazer. But 10 months after his international swansong he became a member of the same profession as player-manager of Fourth Division Wigan Athletic. His assistant, Fred Eyre, wrote in his memoir that Lloyd was prone to “wild outbursts” and could be “strong-willed, single-minded, explosive and uncontrollable”.

But he achieved promotion in his first season, then kept Wigan in the Third Division in 1982-83 before taking over as Notts County manager in the top flight. Relegated in 1983-84, Notts sacked him two months into the next season.

Lloyd, “disillusioned” with football, ran the Stage Door pub in Nottingham, once banishing Roy Keane from Forest’s Christmas party for “giving me some lip”. He later worked as a radio pundit at the club’s matches before moving to Spain, where he ran a bar. In 2008 his autobiography, Hard Man, Hard Game, was published, and in 2021 he returned to Nottingham.

Larry Lloyd married Susan Justice in 1969. They had a daughter and a son but divorced.

Larry Lloyd, born October 6 1948, died March 28 2024