Thanks – David Johnson

Maybe I should have changed this to ‘no thanks’, because I searched the name ‘Johnson’ in my media library and a certain Forest player popped up 100 times. Anyway, that’s another story.

Johnson stood at 6ft 2in and whilst that would mark him out as a typical ‘Keith’ striker during his second reign, the Imps played football on the deck in ’93. That suited Johnson, he was as much a winger as he was a centre forward and despite his height, his best play always came from his feet. In the end, we paid £32,500 for his services, something that irked Trevor Francis at Hillsborough who felt £100,000 was more appropriate. By today’s standards, with inflation, that would be around £67,000.

On September 18th Johnson bagged his first Imps goal at Sincil Bank as we drew 2-2 with Bury, and he earned his ‘Magic’ monicker a short while later, opening the Imps’ account in the Coca Cola Cup against Everton. In those early weeks, he could do no wrong, scoring a couple of days later as we beat Northampton 4-3, and again in the Autoglass Shield to beat Mansfield Town 1-0. On October 6th he netted against Everton again and by the time the Sky Cameras caught him getting our consolation in a 3-1 FA Cup Second Round defeat against Bolton, we had a new hero.

He’d got eight goals before Halloween, but his form tailed off as did that of the team. He only scored five more during the season, a brace away at Torquay in April, against Darlington away (lost 3-2) and Scunthorpe at home (won 2-0) in December and in the AWS Northern Semi-Final at Carlisle as we lost 2-1.

Injury blighted the following season as Keith found himself fired and Sam Ellis came in. Johnson bagged seven, again chipping in during those bigger matches. A bit like Theo Robinson, he could be found wanting for goals in the league, but scored as we beat Huddersfield in the FA Cup to reach the third round, as well as the only goal of the game as we beat Premier League Crystal Palace 1-0 in the Coca Cola Cup, our last win against top-flight opposition until 2017.

The following season was another turning point for the Imps, Sam Ellis got the sack, Steve Wicks came and went and John Beck arrived. He didn’t fancy Johnson and after one league goal, he left for Altrincham, having struggled with injury.

There is some debate as to whether he really was that good for the Imps, or whether those headline goals masked underachievement, but for a 14/15-year-old me, he seemed the real deal.