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Andy Morrell

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Andy Morrell

Andrew Jonathan Morrell (born 28 September 1974) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, Morrell played 359 games in the Football League for Wrexham, Coventry City, Blackpool and Bury, scoring 96 goals.

Initially handed the manager's role on an interim basis at Wrexham, after Dean Saunders left to manage Doncaster Rovers, Morrell was given the job until the end of the season after a run of seven wins in nine games, he continued his playing career serving as a player-manager, leaving the position in February 2014 after two and a half years as manager with a win record at over 52%.

Morrell has also served as assistant manager at Shrewsbury Town.

Born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and brought up in Market Bosworth, and attending Twycross House School, he played for the Leicestershire County Cricket Club from under-15 to under-19 level. He started his football career as a youth team player at Nuneaton Borough, before deciding to make the move north to Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne to study Sports science. It was then that he started playing for Newcastle Blue Star making 31 appearances scoring 25 times in his season.

Morrell's first big break came when he started talking to Sky Sports presenter Rob McCaffrey, who was helping to write the autobiography of Joey Jones, Wrexham's first-team coach at the time. McCaffrey arranged for Morrell to have a trial at the club. After a week's trial he was kept on at Wrexham and was coached by their striking coach Ian Rush, from whom he learnt a great deal. With his new strike partner Lee Trundle he scored 34 league goals in 45 games in the 2002–03 season, making him top scorer in all four divisions that year, having only scored two goals the entire previous season.

After a very impressive spell with Wrexham, Morrell caught the eye of Coventry City manager Gary McAllister, who signed him on a free transfer in the summer of 2003. Morrell scored nine goals in 19 starts in his first season with Coventry; however, this decreased to six goals the following season following a transition to a wide midfield position. McAllister's replacement, Micky Adams, told Morrell he would be a squad player. Morrell challenged himself to make the first team, working hard in pre-season to make himself as fit as possible. Morrell was not named in the matchday squads for the first three games of the 2006–07 season.

Blackpool manager Simon Grayson contacted Micky Adams about Morrell's availability, and the striker was allowed to discuss a possible move. Morrell signed for Blackpool on a free transfer on 15 August 2006. He initially struggled to hold a place in the team, but on 16 September he scored his first goal for the club, a last-minute equaliser in a 2–2 draw at home to Oldham Athletic which began a run of consistent appearances.

On 5 May 2007, he scored four goals in Blackpool's 6–3 victory at Swansea City. He also scored against Oldham Athletic in the second leg of the play-off semi-final, which put his league goals in his nine months with Blackpool at 17, which was the total he scored in three years with Coventry. He finished the 2006–07 season as Blackpool's top scorer with 20 goals in all competitions.

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