Fleetwood Town loanee has to capitalise on a friend's injury

The 24-year-old was brought in to replace long-term absentee Brad Halliday, who is also one of his friends.

Johnson has been in contact with Halliday who has had an operation as he starts the road back from a knee injury.

He said: “I knew Brad Halliday from my time at Middlesbrough before I came.

“It was really unfortunate for Brad. Before this he’s had very few injuries but it’s one of those things.

“Brad’s been good to me as well, I’m good mates with him.

“He’s just had his operation and it’s gone well.

“Hopefully I can step in and perform well, and help the team.

“The lads have been welcoming and so have the staff.

“It feels like I’ve been here a long time already and I’ve only been here a week.

“More importantly than all of that, we have some really good players.

“I’m excited for the season and, hopefully, we can be successful.”

The Portsmouth loanee could be in line for his Town league debut at Rotherham United this afternoon (3pm).

The Millers are tipped to be one of the sides in the mix for promotion come the end of the season, so Johnson believes today’s game is the perfect challenge for Town.

He said: “It’ll be a tough game, they won on Tuesday with a slightly rotated squad against Doncaster.

“I know some of their players, it’ll be a tough game.

“They’re on the front foot, they’re direct and tough.

“They like to play 3-5-2 and get it forward to (Michael) Smith quickly.

“We’ve got to be able to defend against that properly and then impose ourselves on the game, and pose a threat going forward as well.

“It will no doubt be a very tough game. I think Rotherham will definitely be at the top end of the league come the end of the season.

“That’s where we want to be so it’ll be a good game to test ourselves against them.”

As well as establishing himself in Simon Grayson’s starting XI, Johnson also has another challenge ahead – dealing with the infamous weather that can hit Highbury on occasions.

He added: “I don’t think I’ve played one game at Fleetwood where it hasn’t rained!

“The first game of the season (when Johnson played for Portsmouth at Highbury) summed it up really. It bounced it down for about five minutes then it was sunny after that.

“I like playing in the bad weather anyway.”

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