Palace seal Clinton capture

Clinton Morrison has returned to Crystal Palace for £2 million from Birmingham.

A host of Championship clubs had been chasing the 26-year-old, but Palace saw off competition from Norwich, Southampton and Sheffield United to land the Republic of Ireland star for a £2 million fee.

Morrison left Palace to join Birmingham three years ago in a £4.25 million deal that saw Andy Johnson move in the opposite direction.

Johnson has gone on to prove a huge success with The Eagles, but Morrison never truly established himself at St Andrews and managed a total of 16 goals in 97 appearances.

The Tooting-born striker had seen his first-team opportunities at Blues limited further by the signings of Walter Pandiani and Mikael Forssell this summer and has opted to move on in search of regular action.

Morrison believes he was not given a fair crack of the whip by Blues boss Steve Bruce and revealed his mother played a big part in his decision to rejoin Palace.

"I think I was treated a bit unfairly last season (at Birmingham), I came into the team and played with Heskey and we did well," he declared.

"But after two or three games we didn't get the right results and it was me who was sacrificed out of the team and then he (Bruce) brought another striker in.

"I don't want to look back now, I want to look forwards and get on with it.

"My Mum had a big bearing. She said 'come back to Palace, closer to home. It was good there and you did well there before'."

There had been speculation that adverse reaction from Palace fans could scupper the deal, but Eagles boss Iain Dowie made it clear he was determined to bring the striker back to South London.

Morrison managed 72 goals in 180 games in his first spell at Palace and Dowie will be hoping he can reproduce that kind of form and strike up a productive partnership with Johnson.

It means Palace now have a wealth of attacking options with Johnson, Jonathan Macken, Dougie Freedman and Wayne Andrews already on the books at Selhurst Park.