Simon Morgan (born 5 September 1966, in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

) is a former professional footballer, who most famously played for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. He also represented England at

Under 21 Under may refer to: * "Under" (Alex Hepburn song), 2013 * "Under" (Pleasure P song), 2009 *Bülent Ünder (born 1949), Turkish footballer *Cengiz Ünder (born 1997), Turkish footballer *Marie Under (1883–1980), Estonian poet * Under (restaurant) ...

level, playing two matches in 1986. Morgan began his football career with Leicester City, representing them in the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

Divisions of

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, before being bought to then

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

Fulham in October 1990 by

Alan Dicks Alan Dicks (born 29 August 1934) is an English retired footballer and football manager. He managed Bristol City for thirteen years and managed clubs in four countries on three continents. Born in London, he signed for Chelsea at the age of 17 ...

. The Cottagers finished 21st in Morgan's first season there (avoiding relegation by two points), and 9th in his second season (during which the club replaced Dicks with

Don Mackay Donald Scrimgeour Mackay (born 19 March 1940) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager. Managerial career After a spell coaching the Bristol City youth team between 1974 and 1978, where he was part of the backroom staff th ...

and missed out on the play-offs by four points) with a squad which Morgan felt "should have got promoted but for one reason or another we blew it". However, a 12th-placed finish in 1992/93 was followed by the club slipping to 18th with nine matches remaining of the 1993/94 season, as a result of which Mackay was replaced by Ray Lewington, and after going through these managerial changes, Fulham were relegated to the

. After finishing within three points of the play-offs in 1994/95 under Ian Branfoot, the club had slipped to 23rd by February 1996, and eventually appointed Micky Adams as

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, who helped them finish 17th. The team was

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the Second Division in 1997. The club was then bought by

Mohamed Al Fayed Mohamed Al-Fayed (; arz, محمد الفايد ; born 27 January 1929) is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s. His business interests include ownership of ...

, which was followed by Fulham's rise into the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in 2001. Due to injury, Morgan only played once in Fulham's victorious 2000–01

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

campaign, coming on as a substitute against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, which earned him the Man of the Match award despite playing only 13 minutes. Morgan was granted a

testimonial In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, where ...

year in the 2000–01 season. This included a special edition of Fulham fanzine TOOFIF, called "There's Only One Simon Morgan" (TOOSM), and culminated in a friendly match against Spurs, supported by a Fulham vs. Chelsea veterans' game (in which his son played). Morgan was unable to participate in the Spurs match due to injury, but kicked the match off before being shown a pre-arranged red card by referee Graham Poll. Morgan then went to play at Brighton & Hove Albion for a season, scoring once against Northampton, before bringing his playing career to an end in 2002. After retiring he rejoined Fulham as head of the club's community scheme. He left the club in 2007 to become the Premier League's Head of Community Development.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Simon 1966 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands Association football defenders English footballers Leicester City F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players English Football League players England under-21 international footballers