As a player, he was a striker who notably played top flight football for Manchester City and West Ham United.
[4] Forced to move into non-league football with Corby Town[5] and Nuneaton Borough with whom he won the Southern League title in 1982.
After scoring 39 league goals in 139 appearances for Northampton, Morley was signed by manager Mel Machin for Manchester City in January 1988 as part of an exchange deal that saw Tony Adcock move to the County Ground.
[11] When manager Machin was sacked by Manchester City chairman Peter Swales, his replacement Howard Kendall saw no place in his side for Morley.
Signed by manager Lou Macari at the end of 1989, Morley joined West Ham United from City in a deal that saw Ian Bishop also move to Upton Park, and Mark Ward travel in the other direction.
[15][16] Manager Billy Bonds, in a difficult season, often used Mike Small and Clive Allen as the main strikers as West Ham finished bottom of the First Division.
He was again top scorer with 22 goals from 49 appearances with West Ham again gaining promotion, this time to the Premier League as runners-up to Newcastle United.
In the Anglo-Italian Cup in a home game to Reggiana having received some rough treatment by Gianluca Francesconi, Morley struck out at the player and was sent off.
[19] With West Ham now back in the top tier of English football Morley scored his first Premier League goal on 18 August 1993 in a 2–0 away win at Blackburn Rovers, a game which saw the debuts of Lee Chapman and David Burrows and Mike Marsh who had joined following the departure of Julian Dicks to Liverpool.
The injury required forty staples, extensive surgery including facial reconstruction, four days in hospital and the insertion of six metal plates in his skull which will remain for the rest of his life.
Morley was stabbed by his wife in 1991, he later speculated that she was behind false accusations of him being in a homosexual relationship with friend and teammate Ian Bishop.