When the joking has to stop

Smiling Clinton Morrison has plenty of reasons to be happy — but Dwight York he ain’t. Liam Mackey met him.

THE FRINGE effects of a ferocious storm battering the north of Britain, mean that it's a brutal day at Birmingham City's training ground, black clouds, driving wind and almost horizontal rain sending players and coaches scurrying for the sanctuary of a hot shower and hot food.

When Clinton Morrison saunters into the press room after lunch, however, he brings his own benign weather system with him a trademark grin, a ready laugh and one of those funky soul brother handshakes that can leave a white boy from Dublin feeling distinctly inadequate.

In another corner of the room, new signing Robbie Blake is doing his inaugural interview for the club's official magazine, and admitting that he'll have his work cut out displacing the January issue's cover star. "Man Of The Moment" reads the headline, over a picture of the Irish international, a finger to his lips, quietening the opposition support with another goal at St. Andrews.

The article recalls a point earlier in the season when Morrison was struggling at his club but doing well for his country, prompting the striker to joke: "Maybe I'll have to wear a green shirt underneath my Blues shirt to give me that extra kick." The rub of the green has certainly come his way since, his partnership with Emile Heskey proving hugely productive for Birmingham. Morrison's contribution both as goal-maker and taker earned him a local paper's player of the month award for December, a period during which Birmingham sent their supporters into ecstasy with victory over city rivals Aston Villa.

Perhaps the only cloud currently hanging over the striker is the FA charge, based on video evidence, for angrily hurling Bolton's Nicky Hunt to the ground in an off the ball incident. "He was stamping on the back of my Achilles heel," the striker pleads, adding that, since the match referee has confirmed he would only have booked him had he seen the incident, the club are hopeful their man will get away with nothing worse than a warning.

Morrison has been in great form for Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers, heading goals against Cyprus and Switzerland, before a knee injury ended what was shaping up to be an especially impressive personal performance against France in Paris.

"I've always had the ability to play like this but it's just confidence, innit?" he says. "Maybe I wasn't as confident two years ago as I am now. My all-round game's changed too. For Ireland, Brian Kerr wants me to be the target man and to link up, but with Birmingham I can play off Emile. So I can do both jobs really and I think my game has benefited."

For someone who has been to a World Cup - in 2002 but not actually played in the finals, the lure of Germany in 2006 is especially strong.

"It was disappointing in Japan even though I was young then and still learning. It's hard to go away for six weeks and not get involved in any games. Hopefully this time, I'll get more of a chance if we qualify. But that's a long way off. Israel away is not going to be easy and then there's France and Switzerland at home. But I think we've learned a lot since Switzerland beat us in Dublin two years ago. We've grown up as a team under Brian and are more disciplined.

"He's a top manager, and he's good for me personally he picks me for every squad and he encourages me a lot. When a manager's got belief in you it breeds confidence in a player and in the team. Before every game for Ireland we have a massive team talk at the hotel. And Brian is really good at that he's up for it, he's excited. He enjoys the job and that rubs off on all of us."

As is clear from the number of times the word comes up in conversation, confidence is a big thing for Clinton Morrison, the knowledge that people he believes in, believe in him. Brian Kerr is one. Steve Bruce is another. Bruce, he says, always told him that he was a Premiership player, and even when goals were few and injuries hampered his progress, insisted that he wanted to keep him at the club. "Now, it's nice to be able to repay him," says Morrison.

Then there's Ian Wright, who was briefly the forwards' coach at Crystal Palace when Morrison was on the rise there. "He was a massive influence on me and I keep in touch with him. He'll text me and say things like, 'make sure you're still focused'."

More than Bruce, Kerr, Wright and all the rest combined, it's his mother Angela to whom Clinton attributes his success. When he was just 16, he was let go by his boyhood idols Spurs, and was so disenchanted that he contemplated giving up football. At which point his mum made a critical intervention.

"I just couldn't be bothered any more," Morrison recalls. "But my mum said to me, 'you can't give up, you've got to stick at it'. So she rang Palace and got me a trial."

Your mum made the call?

"Yeah, she knew a guy there, Peter Nicholas, who knew me as a youngster. And that's why I repay her now and look after her and just treat her well, because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be where I am today."

And he's talking about more than just a career in football. The revelation that his favourite movie is 'Shawshank Redemption' leads him to reflect on how, as a youngster growing up in Tooting, he could have taken a very different route in life.

"I like prison films, you see what prison life is like and you just know it's not the right way to go in life," he says. "And it's my mum I thank for me going in the right direction. She didn't let me out until I was 18 years of age. Where other kids were out from 15 or 16, she kept me and my sister in. That's how I got on the straight and narrow, 'cos where I was growing up there was all sorts of things going on around us. But we used to just get up, go to school, she'd pick us up to take us home, and we'd sit in and watch telly and do our homework. At that time, we'd moan about it, but when you look back on it now, you appreciate it."

Hasow often has she seen her son playing for Ireland?

"She's seen me a few times. But she doesn't like flying so she's got to drive and get the boat over. But for the big qualifiers, especially the day games, she definitely comes over, she likes the atmosphere."

Ditto her mum, Clinton's grandmother, Mary Morrison, who was born in Dublin but lives in London.

"She's come over and watched me a few times as well. It's her home city so she loves it over there. She likes coming to the match but she gets too excited so she has to take it easy." He starts laughing. "If I've only touched the ball, she starts jumping, so we have to just control her."

Maybe that's where Clinton Morrison gets his comedy genes, as well as his Irish blood. Though clearly not a man lacking in depth of character, he has come to be recognised as the joker in the pack in the Irish camp,

"Maybe sometimes people don't take me seriously enough," he muses. "But I do like to be a bit of a joker. I think I get on with all the lads in the Irish team and if I don't they haven't told me yet. Winding people up and the things I say, the lads just think 'he's a comedian'. But I think I'm just normal, just me."

You haven't wound Roy up, have you?

"Nah, me and Roy get on well. He's very encouraging and even he laughs at me sometimes. So he must see the funny side of me too."

Of course, there's a point where the joking has to stop. And Morrison knows exactly where the line is.

"When I'm off the pitch I'm a bubbly sort of person. But when I cross that white line, I'm serious, I want to win. I hardly smile. It's Dwight Yorke who likes to play with a smile on his face. It's not me."

How does he relax?

"Chill with my girlfriend. She lives up here with me in Birmingham so we just go out to eat or to the cinema or just be at home. I'm a homely person, to be fair. I like my place up here, I'm comfortable with it."

Taste in music?

"I listen to R&B, a bit of U2 now 'cos I'm into it'. And some of the Irish songs. We listen to a tape on the way to the games. I think it's Stephen Carr's tape. It's a good craic. I don't know the songs by name but if I heard one I could sing along with it."

A wild stab in the dark here: we're on the one road?

"That's it, man! The one road! Yeah! It's 'ledge'! We had a guy came out to the hotel with his guitar and we sang those songs with him. It was good. I took one of his CDs home and gave it to my nan and she was well happy."

Of course, Mr Kerr would be more of a rocker at heart.

"Yeah, you can tell he's a rock man." Clinton leans forward in his seat, all business. "You see, that's what I've got to say to Brian he don't appreciate good music. Rock 'n' roll is a thing of the sixties. It's 2005 now, man. And if you put that in and I don't appear in the next game, you'll know why."

While we await the first ever split between a player and manager over "musical differences", Morrison addresses the rather more pressing issue of an FA Cup game at the end of the month against mighty Chelsea, Damien Duff and all.

"Playing with Duffer is brilliant for me he just gets half a yard and he whips it in. And that's how I scored my two goals in the qualifying campaign so far. He's a class act and he's a good lad too I get on well with him." Then, poker-faced..... "But when we play Chelsea, I'll be telling our defenders to kick him. Not injure him, but kick him because, at the moment he's on fire, him and Robben, on both wings, so we've got to keep them quiet."

And, finally, Clinton Morrison's ultimate ambition in football?

"To get the winner in the World Cup final. That'll do me nicely. I'd be a legend then, wouldn't I? A statue in Dublin, the lot."

And so saying, he leaves, as he arrived, grinning.