Johnson on Colchester spying mission

Lee Johnson: eyes on the opposition

LEE Johnson will watch Athletic’s next opponents this weekend as he looks for a chink in their armour.

Colchester — who play Athletic on April 18 — are at Stevenage in a relegation ‘six-pointer’ on Saturday - a likely tense game, with Boro at the foot of the table and the Us only out of the drop zone on goal difference.

For Athletic’s manager, a DVD of the game isn’t as useful as being there.

He hopes his Broadhall Way expedition will lead to off-camera clues that will help Latics to victory. Colchester have lost their last four league matches.

“It is a bit of a journey, but every game I have seen live this season we have followed with a win,” he said. “You see things you just don’t see on video, not just technical details but also mindset and fitness. You may spot that a player starts to tire after 70 minutes, in which case you can target him.”

Meanwhile, Crawley continue to struggle and were seen off 1-0 at Brentford last night. Crawley are 17th in the table, a point behind Athletic with seven fixtures left.

Athletic hope to have Genseric Kusunga, David Mellor and Joel Byrom back from injury and illness for the Easter programme, while Anton Rodgers’ recovery from knee surgery may see him return for the final two matches of the campaign.