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Ex-Man Utd hope Morrison finally ends eight-year wait and earns Lineker praise

mirror.co.uk, 6 March 2022, 13:36
The former Manchester United starlet scored twice in Derby County's vital win over Championship relegation rivals Barnsley - a result which keeps alive their slim hopes of beating the drop

Ravel Morrison ended an eight-year wait on Saturday.

The Derby County midfielder had not been on the scoresheet in an English league match since way back in April 2014.

But the ex- Man United man ended that long drought with not one but two strikes in the Rams' vital 2-0 victory over Barnsley.

He opened the scoring with a sublime goal that saw him link up well with Luke Plange before pulling off a lovely chipped finish.

That was his first goal in a league game since he scored a late goal in QPR's 5-2 Championship win over Nottingham Forest almost eight years ago.

Can Derby pull off survival? Let us know in the comments

And having broken his duck at long last Morrison only had to wait another 25 minutes for his second strike.

His instinctive effort after Tom Lawrence's attempt came back off the crossbar sealed a huge three points for Wayne Rooney's side.

Morrison's first goal in particular had plenty of people purring, including former England striker and Match of the Day anchor Gary Lineker.

Lineker retweeted a clip of the goal on Twitter, with the caption: "Oh we like that."

The win sees Derby trim the gap to safety back down to five points with just 10 league games left to play.

After being handed a mammoth 21-point deduction, County are right up against it if they are to pull off what many believe would be one of the greatest escapes of all time.

Morrison, 29, says the mood in the camp is good after a much-needed win against one of their drop rivals - and spoke of his happiness at finally getting that long-awaited goal.

"I'm buzzing to finally get on the scoresheet and it's a massive three points for us and the club," he told RamsTV.

"I thought the first goal was offside! The only reason I dinked it was because I thought it was offside so I just went for it. I looked over at the linesman and the flag was down so it was a massive relief.

"It's always a joy to score. The main thing is that we win and take the three points so it's massive for us.

"It was a must-win game. I do believe we were better than them and we are better than them. That's no disrespect to them.

"We look at the table with the points that we've got and the points that have been taken off us, we would be up there.

"We are all together and fighting for it. We have got a great bunch here. Loads of great players, all the staff, it's nice going in every day because it's a good environment.

"We build up well and we've all got each other's backs and that's the main thing. We are not focusing on the table, we are just enjoying ourselves every week and trying our hardest for the fans because they're trying their hardest for us and being right behind us."

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