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Date and Place of Birth 22nd August 1953 - Ashington
Transfers to and from Burnley amateur then pro - August 1971 to Southend United - January 1977 (£10,000)
First and Last Burnley Games Wimbledon (h) - 4th January 1975 sub: replaced Jim Thomson
Bolton Wanderers (h) - 14th August 1976
Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- Southend United, Blackpool, Sheffield United, Scarborough |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1974/75 | 1(1) | - | 0(1) | - | - | - | - | - | 1(2) | - |
| 1975/76 | 8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8 | - |
| 1976/77 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 | - |
| Total | 9(1) | - | 0(1) | - | - | - | 3 | - | 12(2) | - |
Profile by Tony Scholes
Colin Morris made his debut for Burnley on a day that most of us would prefer to forget. It was the first Saturday of 1975 and our FA Cup tie against non-league Wimbledon, coming on as a sub for Jim Thomson.
It was almost six years after the winger had joined Burnley as a sixteen year old from his native Ashington, birth place of then coach Jimmy Adamson. He'd been with Sunderland as a schoolboy but was rejected and after a short trial was taken on as an apprentice by Burnley.
He was a member of the youth team that reached the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup in 1970/71 season and was soon a regular in the reserves, but such was the form of the first team that it took him until that January day to make the breakthrough.
A week later he got his first start in a 1-0 league win at QPR but he was to make only one more substitute appearance during that season, but in the second half of the following season, our last in the top flight, he made eight appearances and looked to be establishing himself with the first team.
Unfortunately it didn't happen, and following relegation he was back in the reserves for the first half of the 1976/77 season. In a search for first team football he left Burnley in January 1977 and signed for Southend in a £10,000 deal. He was soon a regular in the side and in his first full season there was an ever present as they won promotion from Division Four.
He spent one more year at Roots Hall before returning to the North West with Blackpool and by then his value had soared to £100,000, and that wasn't a small fee in 1979, certainly not for a Third Division side.
He became a big crowd favourite at Bloomfield Road in his two and a half year stay but in early 1982 he was on the move again to Sheffield United, dropping back into Division Four with the Blades.
Again he won a promotion from the bottom division and whilst at Bramall Lane he won a second promotion two years later and scored no fewer than twenty goals playing on the wing. He was a real crowd pleaser there and his partnership with Keith Edwards is still talked about. Morris so often on the wing creating chances for striker Edwards.
He spent over six years with the Blades and made just short of 250 league appearances, basically a regular in the side throughout his time there. But after they were relegated in 1988 he was released and signed for Scarborough who had just enjoyed their first season in the Football League.
He'd signed as a player/coach, working for manager Neil Warnock, and when Warnock was surprisingly dismissed in 1990 they turned to Morris to replace him. He was in charge for almost a year before being replaced by Ray McHale.
He later played non-league football for Goole and Boston United before hanging up his boots, and in more recent times his son Lee also played for Sheffield United before continuing his league career with Derby, Huddersfield, Leicester and Yeovil and then dropping into non-league with Burton Albion. His transfer from Sheffield United to Derby was valued at £3 million.
Colin Morris looked a promising young player at Burnley who probably wasn't quite good enough to play at the very top level, but he still had a very good league career that stretched just short of 500 games.
