Jamie Moralee

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Jamie Moralee (born in Wandsworth, England 02/12/1971) is a professional football player.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Watford 3 Crewe Alexandra and Brighton 4 Journeyman striker 5 Return

[edit] Early career

Moralee started his career at Crystal Palace but found his opportunities limited and he left without scoring a goal. He first found fame at Millwall as a promising lively young striker and great things had been expected of him. After scoring 19 goals in 67 appearances, Jamie attracted a lot of interest from bigger clubs - Middlesbrough were seriously interested and there were rumours of suitors from the Premier League, but it was Watford who secured his signature in 1994 for what was considered a bargain £450,000.

[edit] Watford

Watford fans were extremely excited at the prospect of having Moralee leading their attack and he was considered quite a coup - Moralee actually insisted on only signing a 2 year contract because he didn't want to tie himself down if the Premier League clubs came in for him.

To everyone's surprise, Moralees spell at Watford proved to be disastrous as he was totally ineffective up-front and failed to form any sort of real partnership with fellow striker Tommy Mooney. Before long he had become a laughing stock amongst the fans and media and his ineffectual "headless chicken" performances eventually led to him losing his place in the first team. He managed a paltry 7 goals in 49 games. Even though he endured 2 fruitless seasons at Watford, their decision not to renew his contract still came as a major shock to the distraught Moralee-

[edit] Crewe Alexandra and Brighton

Unfortunately such optimism proved to be without much foundation as Moralee was taken on by Crewe Alexandra, where he spent most of his time on the treatment table, managing only 16 appearances and failing to score in almost 2 years. He was promptly released by Crewe and spent 5 months in the footballing wilderness before Brighton offered him a monthly contract at the start of the 1998/99 season.

Jamie did better at Brighton in that he was able to hold down a first-team place and steer clear of injury for much of the season but still he found goals very difficult to come by. Brighton decided against retaining him at the end of the season - he had scored 3 goals in 31 appearances.

[edit] Journeyman striker

He then became something of a journeyman striker, spending time at Fulham (no appearances) and Colchester (1 goal in 27 appearances) without much success before deciding to take some time out from the game after struggling to find a club following his release by Colchester in 2000.

When he returned with Barry Town (2002) in the Welsh league, he found the lower level of football beneficial for his career as the 30-year old regularly topped the goalscoring charts with consistent hauls of 20+ goals in the Welsh leagues. He even got to play in the Champions League (Qualifying stages) with Barry.

[edit] Return

Moralee returned to English football in 2003 with non-league Forest Green Rovers but despite a respectable goals return of 2 in 10 games his overall play failed to impress and he was loaned back to Wales - this time with Newport County. He failed to recapture the form he'd shown for Barry Town and never really won over the fans, which led to his departure to Chelmsford City FC in the summer of 2005. He is currently a regular in the side and has managed 2 goals in 19 appearances in the 2005/6 season.