Johnson eyes race to 50-pt safety zone

Reporter: Simon Smedley
Date published: 03 March 2014


LEE Johnson is still at least 12 points shy of his league safety target — but the Athletic boss drew plenty of encouragement from the battling effort at Tranmere Rovers.

Johnson’s side enjoyed the better of a 2-2 draw at Prenton Park — a result which leaves them in 14th place in the table, though still only three points clear of Crewe in the final relegation spot.

Two home games are next for Athletic: Preston on Saturday and Rotherham on Tuesday week. Still the talk is focused on progress, with Johnson warning opposition teams his players will prove tough nuts to crack in their final 12 games of the season.

Johnson said: “It’s about reaching the 50-point mark as quickly as possible, and then we can start planning and thinking about things for next year, hopefully.

‘We need to continue that progression route we’re all determined to follow. Initially we all had high hopes at the start of the season, but that’s not quite panned out. We’re still looking higher in the table, though.

“Some people might panic because the table is looking a bit unorthodox at the moment, but people have to be careful not to write us off. In any game at this level we’ve always got the quality that can win games.”