WE GO OUR OWN WAY!

STEVE Morison, the new and thoroughly unexpected manager of Hornchurch, bristled when I asked how he’d cope with coaching players of a lesser standard than the Cardiff City stars he’d recently guided to Championship safety

- CHRIS DUNLAVY

“Listen,” he responded, with typical bluntness. “There’s lots of reasons why people drop a level or play in Non-League, and it’s not always because they’re not good enough.

“They might not be able to do the travelling, they might not be consistent enough, or fast enough, or strong enough. But they’re all good players.”

Jack Lambert, the maverick midfielder who last week quit Darlington to join newly-promoted Kidderminster, embodies that sentiment.

Lambert is fast enough to play in the EFL. Strong enough to play in the EFL. In terms of his game intelligence and technical quality, he’s probably good enough to play in the Championship.

And as a tally of 24 goals over two seasons at Blackwell Meadows demonstrates, he is – at the age of 24 – finding the consistency that proved elusive during his formative years in Middlesbrough’s academy.

So what’s missing? Speaking to Lambert last week, he spoke candidly of his inability to function under managers who placed restrictions on his freedom.

“I’ve never got on with managers who try to turn players into robots,” he explained, before describing the frustration of being coached through a game from the sidelines. “Pass here, move there… that’s not for me,” he added.