‘For my state of mind, it just feels right’ – Ex-Millwall striker Morison on taking boss job at non-league Hornchurch

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Steve Morison returned to football management last week, and it is fair to say that his move would have left many doing a double take while processing the news.

The former Millwall striker has taken over the reins at Isthmian League Premier Division side Hornchurch on a part-time basis. The Urchins chairman Alex Sharp revealed that Morison had been in “active conversations” about returning to Cardiff City before a deal was agreed.

Morison will surely be the most high-profile boss in that tier of non-league. A former Wales international who played for Leeds United and Norwich City, in the Premier League, as well as twice winning the League One play-offs with Millwall. He is third in the Lions’ all-time goal charts.

The 39-year-old, who has scored at international level and in the top six divisions of English football, has laid bare the challenges – some of them mental – since being sacked by Cardiff in September.

“I lost my job in tough circumstances – I don’t think I warranted it,” Morison told the South London Press. “We were 10 games in, with a new squad. We had a better points-to-game ratio than the club ended up with.

“You leave with your head held high. I did everything asked of me. Could we have picked up a couple more results? Yeah. But  could we also have dropped a couple more results? Also yeah.

“You wait to see if you get another opportunity. I didn’t expect to get another one in the Championship straight away but I thought I might get a League One or League Two one.

“Certain clubs liked the way I’d played football at Cardiff and the situation I’d dealt with. But maybe outside of Cardiff and Wales, not many people know what you have been doing because I suppose it is kind of off people’s radar.

“I found it amazing when we had the South Wales derby on and we had a really bad result in it. In Wales it is absolute carnage, in regards to the result, but you go over the bridge, back into England, and people didn’t even know it had happened.

“I had a couple of clubs where it looked like I was getting jobs and I lost out to people who have never had any experience as managers before – both subsequently have been sacked out of their roles. You get a bit frustrated with that because you feel you could’ve helped – I’d experienced that situation and the model of the other club, and what they wanted was everything that I’d done at Cardiff.

“As time goes on, you start to get a bit frustrated. Everyone around you is trying to be positive – that something will happen – but the longer it goes and then it doesn’t.

“I had a conversation with the owner of Hornchurch and it was kind of right time, right moment. You want to feel wanted. He knew everything I’d done. They have missed out on promotion the last couple of years. It’s a good club.

“I revert back to my playing days. You know what? Let’s see if I can do what I did when I played, which is that I started in the league and had to go and restart. It took me some time but I eventually went beyond my wildest dreams with the Premier League, scoring goals at Wembley and playing international football. I’ve been in the job a few days and I’m really enjoying being back in – working towards something and having a purpose – having those conversations with the people above me, the players and the staff.

“Everyone talks about mental well-being and you don’t think about it massively until it happens to you, or you have bad moments. For my state of mind, it just feels right. It feels nice.

“People might think I’ve got an ego or have an opinion of me, I think that puts all that to bed, in terms of the fact I just love football. I want to be involved and I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of something successful. Can we go to the next step? Whatever happens off the back of it, happens.”

Morison made his debut for Northampton in 2002 before dropping into non-league at Bishop’s Stortford and Stevenage.

Eighty-six goals in 151 appearances for the latter prompted Millwall to pay £130,000 in May 2009.

It proved to be an absolute snip as Morison scored 23 times as the Lions won promotion to the Championship.

Norwich signed him for an undisclosed fee after he proved his Championship calibre with 15 goals in the 2010-11 season.

He became Cardiff’s U23 lead coach following retirement, with football a constant focus for more than two decades.

No wonder the subsequent silence after leaving Cardiff was difficult to take.

“You have good parts of it but then Saturday three o’clock comes and you’re just home all the time,” said Morison.

“You go to games and keep yourself busy – doing the Millwall games towards the end of the season (for Sky Sports)  was great. We were trying to get in the play-offs and you feel like a part of it. There was a great buzz.

“It gives you that desire and hunger to come back.

“It has been different. I’ve done loads of things that I haven’t done before – because you are available. You don’t miss anything. Whereas you have missed loads before. Anyone in the professional game will tell you that a lot of stuff unfortunately has to be pushed to one side.

“That’s been nice and with this job, those things will still happen.

“But you work hard for a long time to be involved in football, whether that is as a player or you go on to work hard for your coaching badges. I’m starting another course next week – the LMA (League Managers Association) Diploma in Football Management. You are always learning, on and off the pitch. It’s want you want to do when it is your occupation.

“I lost that edge towards the end, which is why I retired, and then you take your first game, whether it is U18 or first-team one, and you get that buzz back. I suppose that is the bit you miss the most, standing on the touchline, it’s the closest you can get to playing.”

Morison is sure to draw attention from opposition supporters, with comments usually amplified in smaller stadiums.

But he drew respect from the Millwall fanbase for the way he dealt with negative comments – not being shy about responding back.

“That’s a side of it I really enjoy, without stepping over the mark,” said Morison.

“I told them that we’re going to have a target on our backs, even bigger than what we had – being one of the teams that always competes at that level.

“We’re going to get stick but it’s going to be good fun.

“It’s not something I’m too worried about. It makes winning more enjoyable.

“If they had been able to turn two draws into wins then they would have been promoted. They lost the league by four points and at one point they were five points clear. It’s just making subtle changes.

“The stuff I’ve seen so far and been told about, there are little bits you can change. Can we be a little more professional? Can we do things that other teams aren’t doing or don’t know about?

“We’re going to try and exhaust every option. Hopefully we’ve got a little bit more of a reach for bringing players in. They want to do things right at the football club.

“For some of the changes, it might not feel a lot. There will be personnel changes, because I believe if we go into next season with the same group we have had for the last couple then you end up with the same result.

“We’re not going to rip up the rulebook. You’re not going to see someone trying to play like Manchester City in the Isthmian Premier League – it’s not right and I’m not stupid. But can we change and train with a slightly better intensity? Can we change a few bits off the pitch to make things a bit easier on it? We’ll do everything we can.”

Morison was so certain that Millwall had reached this season’s play-offs that he stopped watching when they went 3-1 ahead against Blackburn.
Rovers came back to prevail 4-3 and wreck their top-six dreams.

“People are human – it’s just pressure,” said Morison. “They deal with that in different wants.

“Blackburn didn’t have any pressure because it was such a big ask for them to get in the play-offs. They were just free. (Ben) Brereton-Diaz was going to leave anyway.

“Ultimately the squad was just a little bit short. They lost Murray Wallace with three games to go – little things that upset the applecart.

“It should have been more comfortable. Losing the Wigan game meant they were always searching for that little bit of form.

“I was adamant they were going to beat Blackburn – with the crowd behind them and it being the last day of the season.

“Once the tide turned you are looking for someone to get hold of it – for someone to be a knobhead. I know it sounds stupid – but for someone to just go and kill the game. Lie on the floor for a bit or do something that calmed everything down. If you look at that squad there was no-one that was really going to do that – everyone just carried on and it got more and more like a basketball game.

“Blackburn probably had players who were slightly more athletic in those moments which took the game away from them.

“Over the years you’d have had Chopper (Neil Harris), Robbo (Paul Robinson), myself or Fordey (David Forde) – him taking half an hour to take a goal-kick. Or one of us lying down on the floor and saying we can’t move for a bit, but not going off, or leaving one of their players on the deck – especially at The Den. The fans love a barney. Then they get up and you’ve got another yard that you didn’t have before.

“It’s a learning curve, those players will come again from that – but next season is going to be a tough Championship.

“The two teams that got to the play-off final, Luton and Coventry, had more know-how than Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

“Everyone put Middlesbrough down as nailed on, but once the pressure started coming they couldn’t get themselves over the line at the end.”

There will be a new frontman looking to make his name in SE16 next season after Millwall’s swoop for Hibernian’s Kevin Nisbet.

The Scottish international completed his move – which was initially set to happen in January – last weekend.

“It looks like he can score goals and he needs to transfer that from Scotland to the Championship,” said Morison.  “He looks to have all the attributes for it.

“They love their strikers down there. It’s a case of trying to come in and hitting the ground running. It’s an unforgiving league. It will be an interesting one.”