Millwall: £130k non-league deal brought a modern-day club legend to the Den – View

Millwall have had plenty of ups and downs over the last two decades.

The Lions have become an established Championship club with hopes of one day returning to the top flight once again. However, it has not all been plain sailing in the second tier.

Millwall have been forced to spend time in League One for a total of six seasons in the last 20 years but even those brought some fond memories.

The 2009/10 campaign was an enjoyable one for Millwall, as they earned promotion back to the Championship in dramatic fashion. They finished third in the League One table, meaning they had to go through the play-offs in order to achieve promotion.

The Lions met with Swindon Town at Wembley and walked away the 1-0 victors and returned to the second tier. Their top-scorer that season, Steve Morison, had arrived from non-league the summer prior, which was a gamble that ended up paying off as he would go on to become a modern-day club legend.

Steve Morison’s non-league days

The striker made a name for himself very early on in his career in Hertfordshire, as he fired in goals in for Bishops Stortford in the Conference South before stepping up a level with a move to Stevenage, who played in the Conference at the time.

Morison became a fan favourite at Stevenage, as he was hugely prolific in front of goal during his three-year spell and he helped them achieve FA Trophy success on two occasions. The 2006/07 campaign saw him score an impressive 34 goals in all competitions, with the next two seasons being similarly successful.

By the end of his time with the Boro, he scored 89 goals in all competitions, which places him second on the club’s all-time goalscorer charts. His goalscoring form in non-league caught the eye of League One Millwall who snapped him up in the summer of 2009.

Morison’s time at Millwall

Steve Morison is a name that will be familiar to any Millwall fan – with his legend particularly strong considering how cheap it was for the club to sign him. As he was only in non-league at the time, the Lions paid Stevenage a fee of £130k, which turned out to be one of their best bits of business in recent history.

The striker made an instant impact at the Den, as he scored 20 goals and grabbed nine assists in the 2009/10 campaign to help Millwall earn promotion to the Championship via the play-offs. It seemed that everywhere he went, success followed.

He had another strong season, this time in the Championship, as he bagged double figures once again, before being picked up by Premier League club Norwich City. It was never revealed how much the fee was, but Millwall would surely have made a significant profit on their £130k signing.

That was not the last of Morison in a Millwall shirt though, as he returned during the 2013/14 campaign, on loan from Leeds United. The striker was enduring a rare period of struggle in front of goal and was not banging them in as he usually would, but he still managed eight goals during his loan spell with the Lions.

A year after that loan spell, he re-signed permanently with Millwall and never looked back. The club were unfortunately back in League One, but the signing of Morison boosted spirits and there was belief that it would not be long before they returned to the Championship.

Over the next two seasons, the striker contributed to a total of 44 goals, which culminated in a League One play-off final with Bradford City, in which Morison scored the solitary goal to cement his legacy at the Den.

The goals dried up after that as he was now late into his playing career, but he continued to be an influential player until departing in 2019.

Looking back now, Millwall will always be grateful that they managed to discover Morison in non-league and pick him up for cheap, as they may not have earned their two promotions from League One without him.

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