Forward reflects on victory against the Dons at the Park
Exeter City forward Clinton Morrison was delighted with a well-deserved three points for the Grecians with a 3-2 win against AFC Wimbledon.The former Crystal Palace and Birmingham City front-man had one of his most influential performances in an Exeter shirt during his 80 minutes on the field, and won an all-important penalty midway through the second period to allow Tom Nichols to slot in his and City’s second and complete a turnaround.
The Dons had trailed through Adebayo Akinfenwa before Dannie Bulman was shown a straight red for a bad tackle. Nichols’ brace turned the game around, and David Wheeler netted what would prove to be a necessary goal as City stopper James Hamon inadvertently turned into his own net with a couple of minutes to take the cushion back down to a single goal.
Morrison, who only trails Ian Wright in Palace’s post-war goalscoring charts, was a little disappointed to extend his run without scoring since moving to St James Park – but ultimately he was more than happy to have played his part in a winning performance.
“I thoroughly enjoyed it – it was probably my best performance because my fitness is getting better and I’m feeling stronger and sharper,” said Morrison.
“But I thought the whole team did well and passed it well. We were doing well even with 11 men. We’re just pleased to get the three points.
“All I need now probably is a goal – but I’m not going to let that affect me. I nearly did score, but Dave [Wheeler] blocked it! It was going in, but that’s one of those things – I’ve just got to keep going.
“So long as I’m contributing to the team and being a focal point up there, I’ll carry on going because eventually it will come.
“In the back of my mind, I do want to get a goal because I want to go mad and celebrate! The fans want to see a celebration here from me – so hopefully on Tuesday night [against Stevenage] it will come.
“But as Tis says, so long as we keep winning and I keep contributing, that’s the most important thing.
“We did make it a bit nervy – that’s happens and we are going to be like that because we are an attacking team.
“But the most important thing as I’m standing here now is getting the three points and sending us home happy, and sending the fans home happy.”
The victory takes City into the midweek fixture against Stevenage at St James Park just six points behind the Boro and, by consequence, just six points off a play-off position.
City have taken seven points from the last three games and with ten games left to play, Morrison is targeting a late surge up the table.
“The fans have been brilliant since I’ve got here – they were brilliant against Plymouth but we let them down,” he continued.
“But we’re back in it now. We’ve had good away form – it was a good result away at York and we could have won that, and we had a great result against Carlisle. And it was another good result again today.
“If we can take this on and have another good week this week, who knows where we’re going to be? Teams above us are losing, and there is always one team that goes on a run. Hopefully it could be us.”
Clinton also praised the play of his forward partner Nichols, who moved his tally onto 13 for the season with a second-half double. His second goal came from 12 yards after Dave Winfield felled Morrison in the box.
He also predicted a bright future for the 21-year-old if he can keep developing aspects of his game.
“Tom is a goalscorer – and he has worked on his overall game,” said Clinton. “People want goalscorers, but if you’re not scoring goals then you’ve got to contribute.
“He’s working hard, he’s holding the ball up – he’s doing well. He had about seven or eight chances today where he probably should have scored.
“I did have a go at him – the one on the byline when he hit the post, he could have cut back for me for a tap-in.
“But he’s learning – he’s a young boy and he’s doing well, and he listens to me. Fair play to him – he deserved his two goals today because he works hard and gets in the right positions. He’s got a great future ahead of him.”