Suffolk-born Michael Morrison wants to realise his Premier League dream with Birmingham City, ahead of the St Andrew’s side’s Championship opener at Ipswich Town this afternoon, and thinks Harry Rdknapp is the man to help him.

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Morrison, who hails from Haverhill, has yet to taste the big time, but has become established in the second-tier as a non-nonsense defender with the Blues.

The club captain, who was sidelined through injury during the second half of last season, said: “I think the fact we stayed up gives everyone confidence and you back at what we achieved under the manager before.” Morrison told the Birmingham Mail.

“We are good players, it is a new era with Harry coming in.

“I wouldn’t say there is a magic wand for confidence.

“But having the support of someone who knows the game is certainly going to help the lads.

“You look at him and he knows what he is doing.

“When he says ‘We are doing this today’, no-one is saying ‘Oh I wouldn’t do that’.

“That is a good thing to fall back on, 100 per cent confidence in him because we know we are lucky to have him.

“It is about getting momentum in this league and you get a feeling of ‘Right we are going to win games’.”

Birmingham have been out of the top flight since 2011 and former Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday defender, Morrison, added: “I thought last year the league was wide open.

“If you look at the teams who got into the play-offs like Fulham, Reading and Huddersfield, they were in the bottom half.

“It was wide open and was there for anybody.

“Huddersfield went and took it by the horns and got promoted. An underdog that wasn’t expected to get into it.

“You watch that play-off final and I personally thought if Birmingham played against them we could have beaten them.

“Huddersfield have done brilliant to do it for the whole season but it was a little frustrating.”

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest lead the fledgling Championship table after a debut goal from Barrie McKay gave them a 1-0 home win over Millwall last night.

The visitors spurned the best chances of the game, especially in a dominant first half, but could not capitalise and were punished shortly bfore the break by the former Rangers man.

“Millwall were very good. They deserved something from the game.

“They were direct, they were effective. They won the first ball and created chances. Too many times we were loose in possession.

“To play like that and get three points, we are very relieved. We had some good points but were way below our normal level.

“Barrie McKay is a real talent. He is an outstanding player who can be anything he wants to be. He has real technical ability and class.”

Elsewhere last night, Sunderland and Derby drew 1-1 at The Stadium of Light.

Two former Norwich players were on target as Bradley Johnson gave the Rams the lead, only for Lewis Grabban to equalise from the spot for the Black Cats.

Today there are nine fixtures as Bristol City host Barnsley, Cardiff go to Burton, Fulham entertain Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday visit Preston.

Elsewhere, QPR host Reading, Brentford are at Sheffield United, Wolves entertain Middlesbrough and Hull go to Aston Villa.

Leeds go to Bolton tomorrow.