Morrison wants to repay City with goals

Irish international Clinton Morrison has vowed to repay the faith shown in him by the Birmingham fans by delivering goals in the second half of the campaign.

Morrison has had to endure a year of frustration, initially struggling to come to terms with the Premiership and also being laid low for a lengthy spell with a shoulder problem.

But there has finally been light at the end of the tunnel for Morrison who became the club’s record signing – a tag now held by David Dunn – when he moved from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2002.

He marked his comeback, after Christophe Dugarry’s knee injury gave him an opportunity, by scoring in City’s 2-0 win at Leicester in their last outing.

Now he will be looking to continue in that vein when Steve Bruce’s side look to end a three month run without a home victory against Manchester City on St Stephen's Day.

Morrison, who has renewed his former Palace partnership with leading scorer Mikael Forssell, said: “I really hope we have turned the corner now with the three points at Leicester and that we can carry on winning.

“From a personal point of view I just want to score as many goals as possible and stay in the team for the rest of the season.

“But it’s also important that I remain injury free because the last year was a bit of a nightmare for me.

"It was up and down last season and then I got injured.”

Morrison added: “It’s been frustrating this season because I have been playing catch-up. I’ve had to watch from the sidelines and that has been hard.

“I had an operation pre-season and it’s only now that I’ve started to get my fitness back up again but I’m feeling good at the moment.

“The fans have been brilliant throughout towards me and that’s why I want to repay them by doing well and scoring goals.

“I am not going to get too carried away with my first goal of the season. It was pleasing but I just want to keep going now and see what happens.

“But the manager has kept faith in me and I am really hoping that I can hold onto the shirt for a spell now.”

Bruce said: “I am delighted for Clinton because he has been through a tough time, leaving London and coming up here on his own, the price tag on him and then the injury just when we were seeing decent things from him.

“But we are delighted that he has come through it and he did ever so well against Leicester. We just need him to keep playing like that and repeat that performance.

“He is young, he’s got time on his side. I’ve never doubted his ability and we saw glimpses of it against Leicester. It was the best he’s played since he came to the club. Now he has a great opportunity.”

Dugarry is suspended for the clash with Kevin Keegan’s side following the postponement of Saturday’s home game with Middlesbrough because of a waterlogged pitch although he would, in any case, be ruled out because of his knee problem.

Defender Jamie Clapham is battling to overcome the hamstring injury that had made him doubtful for the weekend clash as he looks to maintain his 100% appearance record since moving from Ipswich nearly 12 months ago.