Clubs: Crystal Palace, Birmingham City, Crystal Palace, Coventry
International honours: Republic of Ireland
Caps won at Palace: 11
Clinton Morrison marked his debut in memorable style - by scoring the only goal in the Premiership win against Sheffield Wednesday in May 1998. Brimming with confidence in his own ability Clinton proved a regular goalscorer for Palace in the First Division. While still a teenager he scored 12 league goals in 1998/99 and established himself as a first choice striker, playing more games in the league, and in total, than anyone else except his friend Hayden Mullins.
In 1999/00 Clinton was again the club's top scorer - despite missing some of the season due to a dislocated shoulder. In 2000/01 he once more headed the goalscoring charts though curiously he did not score at Selhurst Park after mid-January. However, many Eagles fans will recall with delight several of his League Cup goals against Premiership opposition.
It was his cup exploits that brought about Clinton's call-up for the Republic of Ireland and no Palace fan was surprised when he marked his international debut with a goal in august 2001. He passed his 50th Palace strike quicker than Ian Wright was able to and he bagged a total of 24 goals in 2001/02 before moving to promoted Birmingham City in the summer for a substantial fee.
In August 2005 Clinton rejoined Crystal Palace for a fee of £2m. His first season back at Selhurst Park was a fruitful one, linking up successfully with both Dougie Freedman and Andrew Johnson to score 13 goals in 41 appearances.
At the beginning of his last season at Palace, he started brightly by scoring three goals in his first three games to take his total to 99 goals for the Eagles. Like many strikers searching for their ton, it proved a difficult weight to shift and a mini-drought ensued followed by former manager Peter Taylor dropping him from the starting line-up.
But, with Taylor's departure and Neil Warnock's arrival, he was soon back in the squad and rewarded his new manager's faith by eventually grabbing his 100th strike against Queens Park Ranger on November 10th, 2007.
After that goals returned to his game and went on to score a further 13 goals before the end of the season to set himself in the higher echelons of the Crystal Palace all-time goalscorers list.
Despite cementing his name in the history books and in supporter's folklore as one of the best strikers in the club's history, Clinton decided his future lay elsewhere and, when his contract ran out in the summer, chose to join up with his old manager, Iain Dowie at Coventry.
Statistics
|
Season |
Games |
Goals |
|
1997/1998 |
1 |
1 |
|
1998/1999 |
42 |
13 |
|
1999/2000 |
33 |
15 |
|
2000/2001 |
56 |
19 |
|
2001/2002 |
49 |
24 |
|
2005/2006 |
43 |
13 |
|
2006/2007 |
44 |
6 |
|
2007/2008 |
47 |
16 |
|
Total |
316 |
113 |
Source: The Men Who Made Crystal Palace, Rev Nigel Sands (Tempus 2004)
