Johnson: Cardiff run on empty
BRISTOL City boss Lee Johnson has taken a swipe at stay-away Cardiff fans ahead of tomorrow’s Severnside derby.
Johnson says he does not expect a red-hot atmosphere when his players make the short trip along the M4 to face Neil Warnock’s high-flyers.
“I’m not sure the atmosphere is that intimidating at Cardiff,” Johnson said. “When I’ve been there a couple of times there’s quite a few empty seats. That’s surprising given the season they’ve had.
“Of course when any set of supporters get behind their team then you’re going to have to deal with it.”
Warnock has guided Cardiff to second in the Championship, 10 points ahead of sixth-placed City, and Johnson added: “You have to respect the work that’s been done at Cardiff over the last 18 months.
“Similar to ourselves they’ve turned themselves from relegation fodder to promotion candidates, and even more so in Cardiff’s case than ours. Any manager has a philosophy and if you’re able to recruit in that philosophy then eventually you get what you’re after.
“They’ve got a lot of big, strong, physical lads and Neil definitely has his own formula for what he believes can be successful in the Championship.
“Every manager’s philosophy is different and every coach is different, and everyone has good ideas. You need to find a way to get a result against those different ideas.”
Meanwhile Dean Smith believes his three-pronged attack can score the goals to fire Brentford into the play-offs.
The promotionchasing west London side head to Leeds this afternoon looking for a third Championship win in a week to further boost their promotion hopes.
And he is confident that a marauding trio of Neal Maupay, Ollie Watkins and Florian Jozefzoon can do some real damage in the 13 remaining games.
“As a former player I wouldn’t want them three running at me,” Smith said.