Earnie glad he came back to Cardiff

Earnie was loaned out by Frank Burrows to Greenock Morton in January 2000 and if it was not for Frank's departure from Ninian Park at the end of that month and Billy Ayre taking over Earnie may never have come back. Earnie scored twice 4 games at Greenock and even now over 2 years on a Greenock fan or two will make contact to see how he's progressing.

Earnie told the Western Mail today

"I'm so glad I came back to Cardiff. Greenock Morton's ground wasn't up to much. It was dark and it had tiny changing rooms. I played against Rangers in the Scottish Cup at St Mirren's ground. That wasn't too bad because it had one big stand.

"My big rival at Cardiff was Christian Roberts and for a while Frank favoured him. I did feel that I was going to be off, but I stuck it out and it has paid off.

"I always wanted to play for Cardiff. I just went to Greenock to play games because I wasn't getting any at Cardiff. But I think that spell with Morton started everything off for me. I got experience there and I got kicked about. When I came back to Cardiff I believed in myself more."

Of course Earnie's rise has been a revelation for City fans, 42 goals in 64 starts, a first full Welsh cap in which he scored the winning goal against Germany and he's on a long term contract until 2007 at Ninian Park.