Lawrence standing tall with Swans
By Mark Mitchener BBC Sports
Defender Dennis Lawrence wants to help Swansea to another promotion push this season - in the hope that they can go one better than they did last season.
The Swans were beaten on penalties in last season's play-off final - having led League One in January - but are now sixth in the table after 17 games.
"We have to learn from last season when we ran all the way to the top but faded at the end," Lawrence told BBC Sport.
"It's important that we keep focused and push on for that automatic spot."
The towering 6ft 7ins centre-back earned plenty of new admirers in the summer after playing a key role for World Cup minnows Trinidad & Tobago in Germany.
With Lawrence paired in defence with another player from England's lower divisions, Gillingham's Brent Sancho, the Soca Warriors drew with Sweden before two late goals saw them beaten by England.
But after playing the first three games of the season with Wrexham, Lawrence swapped north Wales for south by moving to Swansea for an undisclosed fee in mid-August.
"It wasn't easy to make the decision as I'd had five-and-a-half good years at Wrexham, so it wasn't just a matter of packing up and leaving," the 32-year-old insisted.
"I wouldn't have left Wrexham unless I thought I was going to something better.
"But I thought about my age and looked at the challenge, and I thought it might be the right time to move.
Dennis Lawrence and Wayne Rooney
Lawrence faced Wayne Rooney during the summer's World Cup"There's a lot of ambition here and I want to be part of it. The club's pushing for promotion to the Championship and I'm enjoying the challenge."
Nottingham Forest have been the early pace-setters in League One so far, forging a seven-point lead at the top of the table.
But with only six points separating the next 10 teams - and indeed, only 16 points separating the other 23 teams apart from Forest - Lawrence feels Swansea just need to concentrate on their own form.
"It's a tough division - there's never going to be any easy games, but we're quite happy to be where we are in the table at the moment," he added.
"As long as you can score goals, you've always got a chance. It doesn't matter who gets the goals, but we've got guys like Lee Trundle who can pull out a bit of magic and get goals."
Kingman
