Asked for his thoughts on the match, Johnson said “I’m relieved, to be honest. We were a bit flat today and it was a difficult match. They set their stall out early to stifle the game and disrupt our tempo which they succeeded at. We had some good play and got into wide areas but didn’t deliver well enough.
“We didn’t get the fans going today and I have to be honest about that. There were a number of stoppages in play which disrupted the game, as well as the ball being off the pitch a lot. The fans will have seen good patterns of play though, but they did fizzle out. We have a team of bright little footballers, we were neat and tidy many times but a bit more energy is required.”
The Reds went in 0-0 at half time and Johnson felt it wasn’t right. He changed the dynamic of the match by making a substitution bringing on Arsenal loanee Dan Crowley for George Smith.
“I had to do it," he continued. "It was unlucky on George Smith who hadn’t played badly but I just had to give us a solid shape so we had more energy. We started 3-5-2 and it is a very expressive. If people aren’t on their games it gives the opposition a chance to get in behind us. We needed to start again in the second half and we ended up having the majority of the territory but not enough efforts on goal.
After Mason Holgate’s departure to Everton, Johnson added “We are active in the market, I think you’ll see we are a bit short at times so a bit of experience and energy is needed but Ryan Williams was back on the bench today. He has looked quality in training in last few days but I don’t know how many minutes he has in him right now.”
