CONNAH’S QUAY NOMADS’ boss Andy Morrison is “too good” to be ignored by clubs higher up the football pyramid for much longer.

That’s the opinion of Nomads’ skipper George Horan, who has seen first-hand the work done by Morrison since he arrived at the Deeside Stadium in November 2015.

Nomads were battling to avoid relegation when Morrison came into the club, which was transformed by the former Manchester City captain’s arrival.

Inside six months, Morrison had led Nomads to fourth place - their highest ever finish - and a play-off final against former employers Airbus, who were beaten 1-0 courtesy of Wes Baynes’ goal.

It meant Nomads had achieved a maiden Europa League qualification, and since then the club has gone from strength-to-strength, breaking records on a consistent basis.

Nomads have been in European competition every year since Morrison’s arrival, knocking out Stabaek and most famously Kilmarnock, and a first-leg success over Helsinki, the highlights.

And the Flintshire outfit won the Cymru Premier title this term for the first time in their history - ending The New Saints’ run of eight successive victories to qualify for the Champions League this summer.

Horan expects Morrison to be a man in demand, saying: “I’ve said it loads of times, but his attention to detail deserves to be at a higher level.

“It looked like the Wrexham job was the one he was going to get not too long ago and it would have been deserved.

“He will have to move up the leagues sooner or later because he’s too good not to.

“He’s fantastic with the whole team and his attention to detail shows just how good he is.

“You look at things like set-pieces and how he sets us up for European games. If we are beaten in Europe then it’s only very narrowly.

“He demands a lot from us, but that’s what helps drive us on.”

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but like Horan, Nomads’ striker Michael Wilde has learned more than a thing or two from Morrison.

“He’s given me a totally different perspective of the football I knew,” said Wilde.

“He’s put a defensive spin on what I do as a striker, his insight has been really impressive.

“How he galvanises us as a team has also been very important.”

And Morrison has been labelled one of the best managers ex-Chester and Nomads’ central defender Paul Linwood has worked under - even if he was in the twilight of his career when the two came together in Flintshire.

Talking to I Had Trials Once, Linwood said: “I’d played against Jock, but I didn’t know him or come across him socially, but all of the stories were of how he’d done this and that.

“I was thinking it was the last thing I needed, travelling after work to north Wales with him in charge.

“Even though I was pretty much coming to the end in my head, I was dead nervous thinking ‘How am I going to get on with him?’

“I went into the room and he said ‘Linny, nice to meet you, I remember playing against you. Take your top off’. I asked him if he was being serious and he said yes, so I took my top off and was just in my shorts.

“He stood up and I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in my life as he starts pinching my love handles and he says ‘I’ve seen some of your performances and I think you can trim a stone’.

“I agreed and I said ‘I think we can do something here’.

“He’s probably one of the best managers I’ve ever had and I was only with him for six months.

“I had a year left on my contract, but he was too intense for me at my age.

“He was everything I wanted from a manager, but not at that time. He knew how to win a game, how to get into everyone’s head, you were scared of him, but you loved him at the same time.”