Clinton Morrison hit his 20th goal of the season at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, but admitted afterwards that it was a huge relief to break his away duck.

The Irish international, 22, has been in a rich vein of form this season, scoring almost at will at Selhurst Park, with 17 league goals. But his opener at Hillsborough was his first league goal away from home this season, although he did notch an away brace in the Worthington Cup.

He told the Guardian: "It's everything off my shoulders now so I'm just going to start enjoying my game and scoring as many goals as possible.

"I have been feeling the pressure a little bit, cause I was thinking "when's the goal going to come?" but it's finally here so I'll just keep going til the end of the season and see how many I get."

At the start of this season he wanted to beat last season's haul of 19, and with 14 games to go he has already achieved that.

He said: "My target was 20, and I've hit that now, so anything above that is a plus. I want to just keep doing well and get Palace up."

With Dougie Freedman on 19 goals for the season, the competition to be Palace's top scorer is hotting up, and while both strikers try to play down any rivalry, it is clear they are spurring each other on to new heights.

Morrison said: "Dougie's one behind me, so it'll be close. The way things are going at the moment I am the number one cause I'm the top scorer, but it's not really a competition, we are both trying to score as many as possible for Crystal Palace."

Having scored on his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in September, manager Mick McCarthy has resisted the temptation to hand Morrison a start. But having watched him in impressive form on Saturday, he may be tempted to promote him for the friendly fixture against Russia next week.

Morrison said: "Hopefully I'll be in the squad for the Russia game. I'd love to get a start, but if not I'll hopefully get a half and take my chance to impress."

"I really want to be involved in the finals. We've got a great chance of progressing through the first stage, we've just got to go there with confidence."

And with Morrison's fire-power in the squad they have every reason to do so.

February 6, 2002 14:30