James Morrison is working a minor miracle extracting the maximum from his striking trio

If the hardest part of playing football is scoring goals, the same applies to motivating the men who are paid to get those goals. James Morrison is discovering that man-managing strikers seems to be an art all in itself.

In Aune Heggebo, Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Barney Stewart, the Albion boss has three forwards who couldn't be more different in character and personality, let alone how they play.

Heggebo had to be pushed by his manager to take the applause from travelling fans on the final whistle at Wrexham. JJ wouldn't have needed a shove from Morrison, far from it. And there was a raw innocence about the way Stewart just ran straight back to centre-circle after his first goal for the club against Blackburn. Right, let's crack on with this comeback, kind of thing.

Morrison has been left short of a striker with quick-silver pace who can run in behind, we know that. So how does he get the most from what he has. So far he's played Heggebo and Morgan in a two; Morgan on his own with Myhre alongside; Stewart on his own without either Morgan or Heggebo and versus Blackburn, Morgan left wing with Stewart central and then Heggebo and Morgan back in tandem before Heggebo on his own with runners in behind. Still with me?

They have seven goals between them, Heggebo & Morgan on three each, Stewart on one. Price is top-scorer with four. None of them make the current top 10 of Championship goalscorers. But each of them have made an impact at important times.

And it's by treating each one of his strikers in a different way, every day, that Morrison seems to making his own impact.

'The man-management is a part I enjoy,' said the Albion boss in his presser before PNE tomorrow.

'I try and challenge them in different ways. I'll say something to trigger them or put sessions on for them.

'We worked hard in pre-season seeing how far people can go to breaking point. How will you handle it when tough times come? How will you be when it's three games a week? We had to get better than last season and so far we are.'

On the difference between his trio, Morrison is fascinating. Take wearing the No.9 shirt as an example.

'It's a big shirt. It can't just be given You've got to earn it.,' he said. 'When Jimmy came in he was asking for a shirt number, he wanted nine or ten. I told him to settle down a bit and earn it.

'Hegs seemed to be happy to keep his 19 because he'd scored goals wearing it last season. So Barney took it and I'm happy with that. But now he's got to keep showing up. All three of them can do more.'