Anyway, I know what I saw when he played at Cardiff, and I decided to do some research/log onto Wikipedia for 10 minutes. This is what I came up with....He was born in Zambia, and moved to wales when he was 9 years old. "Ernie" as he is imaginitively monikered, didn't play his first competitive game until he was 12 years old, at which point he realised he had an uncanny nack for scoring goals, doing backflips and doing goofy grins.
So well did he do, that he signed professional forms at Cardiff City in 1998, despite interest from his boyhood heroes Manchester United
. He was sent out on loan to Greenock Morton to "toughen him up" and played three league matches for them, scoring two goals.On his return, Earnshaw quickly made his way into the first team at Cardiff and it wasn't long before he was noticed by the then national manager, Mark Hughes. On his debut, he scored the winner at the Millenium Stadium against Germany. A few months later Earnshaw was named young Welsh Footballer of the year, and was named in the division two team of the year. He had had a prolific season for his club, scoring 35 goals, 31 in the league, breaking the 56 years old club record set by Stan Richards.
During the next season, he scored a hat-trick for Wales in their 4-0 win over Scotland and scouts from Liverpool, Man Utd and Celtic began to take regular notice. At the end of the season Earnshaw was named in the first division team of the year.
In 2004, Earnshaw was transferred to WBA for 3 million quid. It took Earnshaw seven matches to score his first goal
but he did get two 
: in the 2-2 draw at Southampton. His hat trick at Charlton made him the first player to score a hat-trick at all four levels of English professional football. Although Bryan Robson his then manager preferred to use him as a substitute, Earnshaw finsihed the season with 14 goals (11 in the league) and was Albions top scorer, winning the Ronnie Allen trophy. Despite his golas kjeeping WBA in the Premiership, he was flogged off in the January transfer window to Norwich for 2.75 million.At Norwich, he scored six goals in the remaining league games of the season. By Christmas the following season, he was top scorer in the division with 17 goals, despite Norwich struggling. He then suffered a serious injury which looked to have put him out for the season, but returned in April to make two more appearances, scoring in both game to finsh the season on 19 league goals.
He was then transferred to Derby, where it appears he lost his way, before being shipped out a year later to Nottingham Forest. At Forst while he hasn't uprooted any trees he has gone pretty well, scoring 17 goals in 34 appearances last season.
Anyway, not exactly Ian Rush but I was suggesting him just before WBA signed him. So feck off everyone he's not that bad, and I've got too much time on my hands
