Midfielder hungry for success in 2014-15
BRADLEY Johnson says the motivation to ‘fight for the club’ is behind his burning desire to help the Canaries achieve their target of competing at the top end of the Sky Bet Championship.The tenacious midfielder is keen to right the wrongs of last year’s relegation and his words have been backed up by his performances on the pitch so far this season.
Johnson has scored twice and played every minute in the league for Neil Adams’ side.
“I’ve played a lot of games for this club and I was part of the team that went down, so it’s right for me to stay here and help them try and get back to where they want to be, and that’s in the Premier League,” he told Norwich City TV in an exclusive interview.
“I just feel like we’ve got a great squad here and this is the best time for us.
“If we want to do it, we can do it. I’m going to fight for the club, for the team and hopefully get us back up this year and I know the other players feel the same.”
When reflecting back on City’s positive start to the campaign, Johnson pointed to the fact Adams had made it his priority early on to reduce talk of last season.
“The new manager came in at the end of the season, and that was the first thing he wanted to get out of our system – the disappointment of relegation,” he added.
“Coming back on the first day of pre-season, he said ‘what’s happened has happened, and now we have to concentrate and look forward’, and that was the motto from the whole club.
“We can only focus on what’s in front of us, and that’s the Championship and we have to do our best this year to get out of this league.”
Johnson has led from the front in that charge, forming a fearless central partnership with Alex Tettey and backing up his subtle chip in the home victory over Watford with an almost-identical goal in dramatic circumstances just a few days later against Blackburn Rovers.
“I got the ball again on the edge of the box, and I’ve bent it into the corner and thankfully it went in,” he said.
“It was a massive, massive pleasure for me to score that goal – 88th minute, thinking it was going to be the winner and the crowd were terrific that night for us.
“It’s good celebrating goals – I like scoring and it’s not very often that I do score, so when I do I like to celebrate. It was the meaning of that goal too, all of the lads went over to the corner and we celebrated together.”
On City’s support, he added: “They stuck with us last year when things were down and we knew they would be there in their numbers again at the first game of the season at Carrow Road.
“They’re going to be there all year for us and they will travel up and down the country to support us.”