THE former coach of Norwich City’s latest signing Steve Morison has recalled the striker’s rise from Potters Bar trainee to Premier League star.

Pete Edwards, founder and head coach of Protec Football Academy, based in Potters Bar, praised Morison for his incredible work ethic and tipped the 27-year-old to bag plenty of goals for the newly-promoted Canaries in the top flight next season.

Pete has known Morison ever since the Enfield-born player came to Protec aged 16, training at the Furzefield Centre in Mutton Lane.

The pair are still good friends today, with Morison regularly coaching Protec’s current crop of future football idols.

And this week, Pete hailed the former Stevenage and Millwall frontman as “a fantastic lad whose dream has come true”.

“He’s proof that sometimes it’s hard but if you stick with it something can happen for you,” Pete said.

Pete, a former fitness coach with Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, remembered the time when Morison, was getting up at 4am to work at paper shredding company Shredaway, in Coopers Lane, Potters Bar, having been released by Northampton Town.

He would then head to training in the evening with non-league Bishop’s Stortford, where he spent two years as a prolific frontman.

“He told me it used to kill him but he had to do it,” said Peter. “But obviously it’s paid dividends for him now.”

After hugely successful spells at Stevenage and then Millwall, Morison was this week snapped up by Norwich manager Paul Lambert, as he plots the Norfolk side’s return to the English football elite.

“He’s a fantastic lad and he’ll do well at Norwich. He’ll score a lot of goals for them. I’m really, really pleased for him,” Pete said.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Morison said: “I was playing non league three years ago. Yes, it has been a steep rise, but one I have thoroughly enjoyed.

“It is definitely not easy – you have to work hard and I have managed to do that. I have got lucky at times, and I have managed to still score goals and as a striker that it what you are judged on.

“It is something you dream about when you are a kid, to play in the Premier League, but when you are in non league it is the furthest thing from your mind. You are just worried about whether you are going to play league football again, let alone play in the Premier League.”