Midfielder Ian Morris enjoyed a superb first season at Glanford Park, after joining the club from Leeds United in August.

The Irishman rose to prominence during a loan spell at Blackpool in 2005/06, where he made 21 starts in the league, finding the target three times.

It was in the game against Scunthorpe at Bloomfield Road where he really caught the eye, scoring a superb brace to send the Iron on their way to a 5-2 defeat. Heavy defeats are always bad but the thing that was even worse about this one was that it was being televised live by Sky Sports!

The tall midfield player made his Seasiders' debut in the away draw at Nottingham Forest in September last year, with the match against the Iron being only his fifth competitive appearance in professional football.

He went on to play a key role in ensuring Simon Grayson's relegation-threatened team survived last season and scored one more goal, in the 4-2 home success over Doncaster.

Morris' last appearance for Blackpool came on the final day of last season in the 3-3 home draw with Gillingham at Bloomfield Road.

He returned to parent club Leeds during the summer of 2006 and featured on the substitutes bench in their pre-season game against the Iron at Glanford Park.

Former boss Brian Laws had been interested in Morris all summer and finally made his move before the transfer deadline at the end of August 2006, snapping up the left-sided player for an undisclosed fee.

"I am delighted to get all the paperwork sorted, and just get on with playing my football now," he said after signing. "I live locally and know a couple of players who play for Scunthorpe, they love it here so it was the right choice for me. (Former Iron striker) Andy Keogh told me how great the club was, he really bigged it up and sold the club to me."

He was amongst a cluster of three signings in the final three weeks of August, and with Robbie Foy struggling to get into the team and Daniel McBreen suffering from injuries, it has been Morris who has made the biggest impression.

His debut came away at Gillingham on Friday, 1st September, 2006, and he showed some neat touches to help United on their way to a 2-0 victory, their first away success of the season, and he could have scored right at the end had he not slipped.

He appeared in the next game against Oldham and then, on his Glanford Park debut, scored his first goal for the club as Scunthorpe defeated early pacesetters Port Vale 3-0. He fired home from the edge of the penalty area in the second ahlf to add a gloss to the result.

For the first half of that campaign he was a regular on the left-hand side, also scoring the third in the televised 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest at the start of October.

At the beginning of 2007 the midfielder struggled with injury and found himself out of the side. However, he has recently recovered and got back in the team, and has put in some fine displays of late - scoring in the 3-1 home victory over Millwall and making quite a name for himself in the Republic of Ireland U-21 set-up. He is following in the footsteps of close friend Andy Keogh, now a member of the full Irish squad.

Since the beginning of 2007, Morris has appeared for them on four occasions - including the Madeira tournament, where he started all three games in a few days and won rave reviews from coach Don Givens for his performances in central midfield.

After their 1-0 win over Slovakia, Given said: "I thought we were the better side throughout. Ian Morris was immense in midfield. That's as good a performance as I've seen from him."

He has appeared in the centre of the park for the reserves at times too, and it may be a future position for the young player, who will be another big player for Nigel Adkins' men in the Championship.