However, during this period the club's fortunes were in decline and, following relegation back to the old Third Division, Burnley sold Laws across the Pennines to Huddersfield Town for only £10,000 in 1983.

However, they were saved from closure the following month and Laws remained part of the team who won promotion in the next two seasons to take them from the Third Division to the First.

The originally scheduled fixture had to be abandoned early in the game due to fans being fatally crushed in the Leppings Lane terracing.

Forest were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 1992–93 season and Clough retired, a year and a half later and with reduced first team opportunities, Laws left on a free transfer to become player-manager at Grimsby Town.

Laws started his management career at Grimsby Town in 1994, replacing Alan Buckley who had moved to West Bromwich Albion.

After nearly 10 years at Scunthorpe United Laws left the club in November 2006 to take over the manager's job at Sheffield Wednesday.

Ex-Wednesday chairman Dave Allen, in an interview made before hiring Laws, admitted that he liked him because of his Brian Clough management style.

Laws however came under increasing pressure from Wednesday fans to depart at the start of December, after a poor run of results which saw the Owls drop to 20th along with four straight home defeats.

[14] In January 2010, Laws was linked with a surprise return to his first club Burnley as manager, this following the departure of Owen Coyle to Bolton Wanderers.

Despite this setback, the Burnley board of directors agreed that Laws would be in charge of the team for the quest to regain top flight status in 2010–11.

Laws made a number of signings during the summer transfer window, including Chris Iwelumo from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ross Wallace from local rivals Preston North End.