Morsy: A Special Night
Saturday, 4th Jan 2025 13:47 by Kallum Brisset

Town captain Sam Morsy has reflected on the perfect end to 2024 when the Blues earned their first Premier League home win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Monday night.

Three points over the West Londoners ensured Town would not go into the New Year as the only side in the division without a home success and moved Kieran McKenna’s side to within a point of safety at the halfway stage of the season.

Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson were both on the scoresheet on a famous night that saw Town win a top flight match at Portman Road for the first time in 22 years.

While it took until the 10th attempt, Morsy believes victory on Suffolk soil was long overdue.

“The home performances this season have been close but we haven’t quite got the win,” he said. “The longer that goes on the more doubt naturally filters in but we managed to keep our belief.

“It was a great one to do it in as well because if you can beat Chelsea you can potentially beat most teams. It was amazing to do, it was amazing for the fans who turned up in full voice who expected us to get something. It was great to get it for them.

“It was special to do it. We would have liked to have done it earlier for sure, but to beat a team of Chelsea’s magnitude who are in great form and having a really good season was really nice to do so.

“It felt like a special night because they’re doing so well and have so many really good players. Roy Keane famously said every game you’ve got to prove yourself and I think he was right in that aspect. It’s about us proving to ourselves that we can compete and ultimately getting points on the board.”

The Town squad have stated on a number of occasions that there is no lack in belief within the group, but victory over Chelsea, as well as Tottenham Hotspur in November, has shown that the Blues can overcome anyone in the division.

Morsy said: “The way we approached Chelsea, like we try and do all the time, is with great humility. But when you’re playing against a team like Chelsea with so many top players, naturally you are in-tune a little bit more.

“If Cole Palmer’s got the ball on the edge of the box everyone is dying to block it, we need to have that same mentality towards every game because every team in the division have these sorts of players. It was a great moment for all of us.

“We’ve all been in football long enough to know you have good spells, bad spells and indifferent spells. The main thing that we’ve always had is if we can keep improving and keep getting better, you are going to be in a position to win big games or win back-to-back games and all these things which we’re going to need.

“But we won’t get it through not believing or through not working as hard as we possibly can. The mantra is always to keep improving, keep growing as a team and if we do that we’ll have opportunities to put wins together.”

One of the more remarkable stats to come from Monday’s victory was that six of the starting XI were playing for Town two years ago in League One – Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, Leif Davis, Morsy, Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead.

“It’s special,” Morsy said of that particular fact. “Five or six lads from League One wouldn’t have been playing because the manager thought it would be a lovely gesture, he picks his best team that he thinks.

“It’s a credit to the lads to continually improve on the journey and produce some real standout performances. Broady had been out for a while, he came in and put in an excellent performance and put himself right back in the frame.

“I didn’t realise at the time how many but when I heard at the end of the game it was really nice to reflect on that.”

Something else that Morsy took time to reflect on was 2024 as a whole with this weekend’s trip to Fulham marking the beginning of the Blues’ 2025.

Achieving promotion to the Premier League off the back of promotion to the Championship was naturally the standout for the Town captain, but Morsy was keen to not spend too much time looking back as the football cycle works in seasons as opposed to calendar years.

He said: “We done something historic with the football club. It was a great year but we just look forward now, probably because it’s in the middle of the season you don’t tend to look back too much.

“It’s more of a time to see where we’re at, see where we can improve and we’ll probably reflect at the end of the season.”

With the campaign now at the halfway stage, Morsy added: “It’s been an okay first half of the season. As a team we would have liked a couple more points on the board and that’s what we’ve been deserving of. I’m just trying to learn and get better all the time in the league, keep studying the players and keep trying to drive the team forward.

“Because we’re so early on in the season I’d never say any team is cut adrift, there’s so much football to play. In the points tally I don’t think about it too much, there’s always an average number of points to stay up which you’re aware of but especially in this stage of the season it’s about trying to win games.

“Undoubtedly we need to win a lot of games and again it comes back to the process of being able to win games you’re going to have to improve, keep getting better and grow.”

While Morsy is the captain of the club, it is clear that he is not the only leader within the playing squad and much has been said about the leadership group that has been established at Playford Road.
Conor Chaplin, Walton and Massimo Luongo have all captained the club previously, while Dara O’Shea became the latest to deputise with the armband in Morsy’s absence.

“He’s been brilliant, as soon as he came through the door you could see the quality in his performances,” Morsy said of the Republic of Ireland international.

“He’s a really good leader, he leads by example, he’s a good talker and is doing great. I’m sure he’s going to have a really good career.

“Especially for a newly-promoted team, you need so many different things and leadership and everyone going in the right direction is going to be vitally important for us.”

Asked to define what leadership meant to him, the Egypt international replied: “It’s a very diverse question with a diverse answer, ultimately every captain is different. Ultimately the most important thing is authenticity, you have to be yourself and lead in the way you feel and lead the group in front of you.

“There’s non-negotiables like you have to lead by example, you can’t ask somebody to do something that you don’t do yourself otherwise you’ll be found out immediately. There’s lots of different ways to do it, but most importantly you have to find your way and be yourself on the journey because staying true to yourself is the most important thing.

“In all organisations and leadership you have to alter some things and you have to lead the group in front of you. The League One group is different to this group, but a lot of the time it’s the same. 50 years ago and 100 years ago in leadership, a lot of it is the same.”

With the January transfer window now open and new faces expected to be arriving at the club this month, part of the job as a captain is to help integrate new arrivals and get them settled in as quickly as possible.

January has been a successful month in terms of recruitment for the Blues in the last two years and Morsy knows getting acquisitions up to speed in a timely manner is vital to Town’s chances of surviving in the Premier League this season.

“It’s important and we’re going to need to strengthen,” the 33-year-old said. “It’s just about trying to get them as comfortable as possible in the club, there’s lots of different people in the club now which we have for living arrangements etc.

“I think it’s important as players that we try and make people feel comfortable because that’s when people will play their best football straight away. It’s quite a small world now and players that come in will have some relationships with different players.

“It is really important that we settle in players straight away and get them comfortable so they can showcase their stuff. When you sign in January you don’t want a big settling in period, you want players to hit the ground running straight away which is difficult to do but the more comfortable you make them feel the better chance you’ll have.

“It’s always different challenges. We’ve brought in 12 new players so it’s that balance of wanting to integrate everybody in but at the same time you have the current players as well, it’s about having that equal treatment.

“We’ve got players that have come from League One and players who have been signed for a lot of money. Ultimately, some players in League One will outperform players that signed for big money and equally players who signed for big money will outperform players that have been in the League One group.

“It’s all just about judging what you see day-to-day and try and elevate anyone because you never know anybody’s ceiling and I think we’ve proved that.”

Finally, Morsy was asked about the journey that the Town Women side have been on in recent years ahead of their Adobe Women’s FA Cup fixture with Women’s Super League giants Manchester City next weekend.

He said: “It’s been brilliant for them and they’re doing amazing. They’re on the same journey as us and are progressing. Joe [Sheehan]’s a really good coach and is a good guy, he’s always in and around the first team to see how he can develop himself.

“It’s great to have them around and great to see them improving as well on their journey as we are with ours.”

TWTD

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