Finally, three days after its opening ceremony in Paris, Mark Lawrenson’s return to co-commentary started the Euro 2016 party.
Although the football on show in the opening matches of the tournament had been entertaining, there was a definite Lawro-shaped hole in proceedings.
But cometh the hour, cometh the man.
At just before 5pm on Monday, everyone’s favourite Preston-born Irishman answered the calls of football fans up and down the land, assuming his role in the BBC commentary booth for Ireland’s Group E opener with Sweden.
It was immediately clear that viewers were delighted at Lawro’s return as he immersed himself in the game…
Can't stand Mark Lawrenson.
— Mark Waddell (@MarkWaddell93) June 13, 2016
Turns on BBC1 for the #Euro16 Ireland Sweden game, Mark Lawrenson on the commentary, turns off and goes to bed.
— Matt Jenkins ⭐⭐ (@TweetsbyJenks) June 13, 2016
Lawrenson sounding like he'd rather be scraping pigeon lime off an abandoned fencepost than at the match #IREvSWE
— bob mortimer (@RealBobMortimer) June 13, 2016
…and they soon showed that they were in awe of his insight and depth of knowledge of the game.
Mark Lawrenson's knowledge of European football = Zero
— Dave (@Dave797) June 13, 2016
Mark Lawrenson; do some research. His co commentary is based on guesswork, incomplete sentences and flirtation with Jonathan Pearce.
— phil adlam (@philadlam) June 13, 2016
Lawrenson "The great thing now is that you can make three substitutions."
Yes Mark. Since 1995.#EURO2016
— Luke Williamson (@LukeWilliamson) June 13, 2016
Great bit of commentary there, where Mark Lawrenson was trying to remember who was in The Odd Couple (1968) to make a point about Roy Keane
— Elis James (@elisjames) June 13, 2016
His white-hot humour was also a source of great amusement…
Mark Lawrenson spends the whole match making the kind of puns your Geography teacher did.
— GeorgeWeahsCousin (@WeahsCousin) June 13, 2016
Lawrenson is the most boring commentator ever.He makes shit jokes and is not funny. He has degree of nastiness about him.#IREvSWE
— Keggy Keegle (@worldofkeegle) June 13, 2016
In the end, the match finished in a 1-1 draw in St-Denis, but the result didn’t really seem to matter. Today was the day that a hero returned.
Good to have you back, Lawro.
Mark Lawrenson's commentary makes me want to pour acid in my ears.
Dreadful bloke.
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) June 13, 2016
