Wales international said Stevenage pushed him on to bigger and better things

EX-Stevenage striker Steve Morison says he has his former club to thank for helping to keep his mind firmly fixed on the job when he was slogging it out in non-league football.

Morison this week signed a three-year deal at Norwich City as the Canaries look to strengthen their squad for another crack at the Premier League, but it has not all been plain sailing for the striker who joined Boro in 2006 from Bishop’s Stortford after failing to make it as a League striker at Northampton Town.

At Boro Morison netted 82 times in 143 appearances, a strike record which earned him a deal with Millwall where 40 goals in 95 appearances caught the eye of City boss Paul Lambert who this week snapped him up.

Now a Wales international, Morison joins fellow former Boro player Bradley Johnson (who played five times on loan for the club in 2006) as Norwich look to make their return to the top flight more than just a flying visit, and the striker says it has not always been a smooth ride from non-league to playing alongside the best players in the world.

“It has been a steep rise. It has definitely not been easy – you have to work hard. I have got lucky at times and I have managed to keep scoring goals and, as a striker, that’s what you are judged on.

“This is an opportunity to play in the best league in the world – all I can promise is that I will do my best and work as hard as I can for the team, which is something I have always tried to do.

“This 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 form your mind. You’re just worried about whether you are going to play league football again, let alone play in the Premier League.

“When I was at Bishop’s Stortford and at Stevenage I’d be lying if I said sometimes I didn’t think it would be over. I just had to concentrate on the job in hand and the people at Stevenage made sure I did that.

“I managed to get out of non-league and you have to be lucky to do that…but you make your own luck as well.

“Playing in non-league just makes you appreciate it more, it makes you a little bit more humble, it makes you a little bit more workmanlike with your job. It makes you think you never want to go back down to doing that.

“You make the most of the opportunities people give you and now I feel I have been given a second chance.”

The deal for Morison, which is thought to be around �2.5m, will also benefit his former club as Boro were believed to have a 25 per cent sell-on clause written into the contract which took him to Millwall in 2009.

The transfer fee – which at 25 per cent would be around �625,000 – will be paid to Boro in instalments over the next couple of seasons.