Cherries legend Mark Morris and the memorable Storer moment

STUART Storer is rightly remembered as the scorer of the vital winner against Doncaster Rovers in the last ever match at the Goldstone Ground.

Few remember exactly how the ball fell kindly to him that rain-lashed afternoon on 26 April 1997, but close scrutiny of the much-played clip before games at the Amex (also available on YouTube) shows it was from a rebound off the bar following a header by centre back Mark Morris.

Although defending was his priority, Morris had chipped in with a fair few goals over the years – including getting the winner for the Albion on his debut in a 3-2 win at Hartlepool on 2 November 1996.

Morris was a seasoned pro who had captained Bournemouth and Wimbledon and been part of a promotion-winning side at Sheffield United.

He had answered the call to join Brighton when his old Bournemouth teammate Jimmy Case was manager, as he told The Argus in a 2001 interview. The Seagulls were struggling at the foot of the bottom division with the trapdoor to oblivion gradually creaking open.

Maybe if the Morris header had gone in rather than rattling the bar, a different name would have been etched into the annals of Albion history.

Of the vital last-ditch game at Hereford, Morris told The Argus: “As a player, we were playing for the future of a club steeped in tradition. It was one of the biggest games in my career and the result was paramount.

“I was about 35 then. It was getting to be close to the end of my career and I wanted to end on a decent result. Hopefully I played some part in keeping the club up.”

Born in Morden, south London, on 26 September 1962, Morris made it through the youth ranks at Wimbledon and was part of the famous Crazy Gang’s rise through the divisions in the 1980s.

Morris was club captain for a while, playing alongside the likes of Steve Galliers, Vinnie Jones, John Fashanu, Wally Downes and Alan Cork. Most of his 168 appearances for the Dons were in Divisions 3 and 4 and, in the 1985-86 season, he had a 14-game spell on loan at Aldershot.

Nevertheless, he did get the chance to play in the top division and manager Dave Bassett recalled in aninterview with the dailymail.co.uk how he set about claiming a famous victory at Anfield in 1987.

“Our target was to score 50 per cent of goals from set-plays — and we were always close,” said Bassett.

He explained how they’d spend up to two hours working on set-pieces on the morning of a game. In a car park in Runcorn, his Wimbledon team fine-tuned a corner routine which earned them three points at Anfield.

“We’d watched Liverpool,” said Bassett. “We knew if we got a corner they’d think we were taking it short and send two players out.

“So Wisey ran out to the corner taker and they sent two with him. Glyn Hodges delivered into the space, Mark Morris flicked it on and Alan Cork headed it past Bruce Grobbelaar.”

Wimbledon’s football may have split opinion but they got results and had a laugh, and Bassett has recounted several times since how they could play a bit too.

When Bassett moved on to manage Watford, Morris was one of several former players he took with him, although he subsequently admitted in an interview in 2009 that he had made a mistake.

Bassett took over from Graham Taylor after he had left to join Aston Villa, and it proved to be a disastrous six months in which he was castigated from all corners.

He told Lionel Birnie, as part of the Enjoy the Game series on watfordlegends.com: “I brought in Mark Morris from Wimbledon, who was a steady Eddie, but he wasn’t the right one because it became this Wimbledon thing. I should not have brought him because it didn’t do him any favours either. I thought he did well but people saw him as Bassett’s boy and he had to win them round.”

Reflecting that Glyn Hodges did turn out to be a good buy for Watford, he added: “Morris was a squad player, a good influence around the place, but he ended up playing every game.”

After Bassett moved on to Sheffield United, it wasn’t long before Morris joined him there too – with a lot more success.

He was part of United’s promotion-winning side in 1989-90 and, in October 2015, was among a gathering of that former United squad who got together with Bassett for a special 25^th anniversary dinner at Bramall Lane to celebrate clinching promotion back to the elite in 1990. The squad also included Paul Wood, who had joined the Blades from Brighton, and later also played for the Cherries.

Morris played 14 games in the top division the following season, in 1990-91, but Harry Redknapp, in his first managerial role, paid £95,000 to take him to then third tier Bournemouth, where he made his debut on 17 August 1991 in a 2-1 defeat to Darlington.

Morris pictured with Brighton captain Robert Codner during the 1993-94 season

He was a mainstay of the Bournemouth defence for five years, notching up a total of 190 league appearances, plus four as a sub, and was voted Player of the Season in 1992-93.

Redknapp’s former assistant, Tony Pulis, took him on loan to Gillingham at the beginning of the 1996-97 season, before he joined Case at Brighton in the October.

In his final season at Brighton, he was presented with a silver salver in honour of having played 500 league games (as pictured below).

He was one of five senior players whose contracts were terminated early, in December 1997, as the cash-strapped Seagulls in exile at Gillingham were forced to make drastic cuts to survive.

After his release, he linked up briefly with Hastings United but then moved back to Dorset, and Dorchester Town, where he spent eight years as a player, player-manager and manager.

In 2009 Morris was running The Crown pub in Bournemouth and hit the headlines for a different reason when masked raiders tried to burgle the pub.

A return to coaching was announced in July 2017 when Morris joined Wessex League Division One side New Milton Town, although there has since been another regime change at Fawcett’s Field.