PJ Morrison has been Falkirk’s number one for a few weeks now – and the Motherwell loanee says it’s caught him by surprise.
The young Well prodigy is thought of as a future number one at Fir Park, manager Stephen Robinson singing his praises on numerous occasions. But he desperately needed minutes with Trevor Carson starting as the Well’s number one this term.
Morrison moved to Falkirk on loan for the season and has since featured in big games such as an away trip to Partick Thistle and at home in the League Cup to Rangers. It came after Bairns number one Robbie Mutch was sent off against Forfar, Morrison keeping the Bairns gloves in six matches since.
“When I signed it was always in my mind that Robbie would perform well and I’d have to wait for my chance,” said Morrison. “I didn’t expect it to come along so quickly so I’m quite fortunate.
“You don’t have a lot of room for error because you’ve got a top goalkeeper breathing down your neck. It’s good for me because it’s better than knowing your going to play regardless of how you play.”
Motherwell are in constant contact with him over his development in League One as Falkirk push for the title and return to the Championship. The Fir Park goalkeeping coach is key in his progress reports.
“Every Saturday I’ll phone Craig Hinchliffe, my goalkeeper coach at Motherwell. I’m always in contact with him,” explained Morrison. “If I’ve got a game he can watch, he’ll come along and give me feedback.
“My purpose is to show Motherwell that I am still good enough to be there and hopefully I can push into the team there at some point. Having that contact from them makes you feel part of things, even though I’m here.”
“But while I’m here, my full focus is on Falkirk, I don’t think I have too much time to be thinking about what’s happening at Motherwell because there’s a lot on the line here. I concentrate fully on Falkirk and hopefully that’s noticed by Motherwell.
“It helps being full-time fully as I know the job at hand. I’m here every day and I know that I need to do my job on a Saturday.”
There was almost a situation where Morrison had to return to Fir Park. On the day he made his Bairns debut from the bench, Well number one Carson had gone down with a knee injury.
It’s keeping the Northern Irishman out until after the New Year but Robinson has brought Aaron Chapman and Jordan Archer in to allow Morrison to stay with Falkirk. It’s something the young keeper is pleased about.
“The day I got on at Forfar, Trevor got injured,” said Morrison. “Directly after I had a chat with Craig to talk about how I did. He let me know about Trevor and that he would do everything he could to keep me here.
“I don’t think it would have benefitted me going back to Motherwell to sit on the bench there. They did everything they could to get another goalkeeper so I could stay here and play games.”