Defender Callum Johnson previewed the Lincoln City fixture at Highbury Stadium and looked at his overall performance so far this season.
Johnson – who has been an ever-present feature in the squad since joining on loan from Portsmouth – will be hoping to keep a clean sheet on the weekend as Town are on a four-game unbeaten streak at Highbury. The 25-year-old has also found the back of the net on four occasions, with the last being a last-minute equaliser against Plymouth Argyle last month.
Here’s what Callum had to say in his interview:
On his play so far this season…
“I feel like I’m a danger from set-plays as I always feel like I’ve got an opportunity to score, whether that’s from first contact or second contact, and that’s something I’ve added to my game this season. Hopefully, I can chip in with a few more, but I’ll just concentrate on my defending as we can hopefully get some clean sheets and build from that.
“I came here to play games and I’ve had the opportunity to do that and now, I want to do everything I can to help the team by listening to the manager and the staff in terms of what they want me to do. That’s the most important thing, we want to play and win games, so I will do whatever I can whether it’s defending or chipping in with a few more goals at the other end, I’ll do that.
“It’s always been part of my game going forward by trying to provide assists and chances off our play. This is the first season I’ve been up for corners, my whole career I’ve been back and had to clean up any counter attacks. This season, I’ve been going forward, and I feel like I’m a threat and a danger. Hopefully, I can chip in with a few more.”
On the current league position…
“It’s tight at the bottom but we know that if we win our games, we will be fine, so we can just concentrate on ourselves. We know it’s going to be like this until the end but if we just focus on our own games, and win games, we will climb the table due to how tight it is.
“It’s all down to us and we know that we can get results if we perform the way we know we can and have done in the past. We just need to make sure we do that consistently and not let performances happen again like the one we had at Cheltenham.”
On the recent loss to Cheltenham…
“We know as a group that last Saturday wasn’t acceptable and wasn’t good enough on our part. We’ve watched it back and we agreed that we need a reaction so hopefully, we can do that tomorrow. It’s hard to say it was just one of those days because so many things weren’t right – we just weren’t at it.
“As a team, with where we are in the league with it all to play for, a performance like that wasn’t good enough and we need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Games like the one at Cheltenham, unfortunately, do happen in football so we just need to make sure that it was a one-off rather than it become a reoccurrence. We can’t afford to have any other games like that so we will put it behind us and look forward to Saturday.”