Blues defender Roger Johnson refuses to take credit for Fulham success

Nov 24 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ROGER Johnson today played down his heroics in the Fulham game, insisting he didn’t want ‘extra accolades’.

Johnson was an integral part of a strong second-half defensive performance by Blues that ensured a crucial victory.

With 11 minutes left, his number was signalled for substitution by the fourth official but the centre-half refused to make way for Lee Carsley.

“I took a bang, I was struggling a little bit,” Johnson explained.

“I think the boys were more concerned and said to the gaffer, without me realising, that I was struggling, so they opted to make the change.

“When I saw my number go up I was a bit disappointed.

“The gaffer asked was I all right when I went over and I said ‘yes, I don’t want to come off’.

“It was okay, it doesn’t matter if you put the number up, you can still stay on. I was a bit worried that once it had gone up, I had to come off.

“I went for a header and took a knee straight into the side of my thigh. It was a dead-leg, they are painful and you can struggle to run with it.

“I don’t like to come off in any game unless it’s serious. I stayed on and thankfully we got the three points.

“Everyone was like ‘well done’ afterwards but I just wanted to stay on. I don’t want extra accolades. I don’t like to come off.”

The clean sheet posted, a fifth in 13 games, helped edge Blues a little bit further away from the Premier League danger zone.

Johnson and central partner Scott Dann again stood firm, aided and abetted by the full-backs, Joe Hart and diligent work in front of them from the midfielders.

“We defended for the majority of the second-half but we defended well. We have one of the best defences in the league, and that’s why,’’ said Johnson, who was visibly hobbling during that tense finale.

“I think we have the second best record behind Chelsea.

“As a centre-half, to keep clean sheets and not let many goals in is key.

“And these kind of results get you Premier League status again. We kept a clean sheet and the boys scored up top. Perfect really.”

He added: “The boys who have been here before said we would have lost that game last time we were in the Premier League, so it’s good we’ve got the strength in the squad and the team to see games out.

“That’s important because a point on Saturday would have been disappointing, we needed the three really badly.”

Blues are at Wolves on Sunday and a victory at Molineux would put an eight-point gap between the sides.

“There’s a good little run of games now with Wolves and Wigan, Blackburn and West Ham,” said Johnson.

“They are teams all in and around us so we’ve got to pick up points.

“That’s why the Fulham result was brilliant. We let ourselves down against Burnley, another side we are going to be battling with, so we proved something. We can scrap games out.”