Morrison upbeat despite bout of Blues
Ireland striker Clinton Morrison is adamant his confidence is “sky high” despite suffering another bout of first-team blues at Birmingham.
Ireland manager Brian Kerr will again put his faith in Morrison for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv, even though the City forward has only played just over an hour of senior football with Birmingham since his last international outing.
Following the 1-0 friendly win over Portugal in early February, Morrison has barely figured for City since, playing 63 minutes of a 2-0 defeat against Crystal Palace last month and then just two minutes as substitute in Sunday’s derby win over Aston Villa.
Such inactivity has prompted Morrison into a u-turn over his decision to sign a new contract, with the 25-year-old to “keep his options open” and “wait until the end of the season to see what happens”.
Regardless of his bit-part role at St Andrews, and for being renowned as a player who thrives on confidence, Morrison insisted: “My game is fine. I am obviously disappointed not to be playing at Birmingham, but every time I pull on the green jersey of Ireland, I usually do the business.
“Although I am not playing at the moment, it’s not going to knock my confidence which I believe is sky high because when I play for my country I am playing with top players, so I will never lose confidence.”
Morrison attributes his soaring belief to Kerr, who arguably not for the first time will have had the task of raising the forward’s low self-esteem since the squad met up in Dublin on Tuesday.
“With me not playing at Birmingham, it means my role with Ireland is more important,” added Morrison.
“Brian has shown faith in me by playing me in the team when I have not been playing at Birmingham, and since he took over I think I have done okay.
“When you join up with the team, he gives you confidence. You want to do well and play for him and so far I have not let him down at all. I hope to keep that going.
“I remember I went on a long run of games without scoring. At that time my confidence did dip. I was getting chances, but not putting them away.
“But Brian stuck by me, kept me in the team and I got a couple of goals in the first two qualifying games. I was on a roll.
“If I had not got injured in France then I feel 100% certain I would have scored against them as well.
“But this is an unbelievable squad and when I look around I feel I am lucky to be with them. I am enjoying it, and when you play with good players you express yourself, and that is why we have played well as a team under Brian, who has brought us closer together.”
Kerr, meanwhile, remains unconcerned with Morrison’s plight at Birmingham as he said: “Clinton has not played much over the last month, but he has been keeping himself busy.
“He called me after a reserve match the other week to let me know he was still keeping himself active, so that is sufficient.
“It’s not like he has not had a match for a month or six weeks, whereas that has been the case in the past with other players.”
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