I’M TAKING AN ALMIGHTY RISK
ELLIOTT JOHNSON admits it’s a risk for him to take part in the National League play-offs next weekend – especially with his new-born baby on tow.
The 25-year-old defender will lead Barnet’s assault for promotion back to the Football League when they make the visit to Yeovil Town on Saturday.
Safeguarding measures have been typically stringent to meet Government Covid-19 guidelines but Johnson admits he’s got his guard up with the safety of his new young son paramount.
“It was clearly explained from the start, what would happen and how it would keep everyone safe,” Johnson told The NLP.
“I’ve just had a newborn baby of eight weeks now. So when all of this was going on, he was being born, it was right in the middle of it. So, for me, it was massive in my concerns about how they were going to safeguard it and, and do all that for us.
“I said that I wouldn’t be able to come back unless it was clear that we’d have testing in place and everything would be sorted out.
“But the fact that they have managed to sort it, my mind has been put at ease massively.
“If people do start to test positive and get symptoms, it will make me question the safeguarding of the whole thing and I will have a decision to make.
“It was a major part of me coming back at all.”
Darren Currie’s Bees squeezed into the play-offs through the back door, promoted to seventh through the points-per-game system, edging out Stockport County by virtue of goal difference.
It came as a welcome surprise to Johnson, who admits that the chance to win promotion in his tenth season with the Bees, was never one he truly considered.
“We were eleventh in the league, with few teams ahead of us, but we had four or five games in hand on the teams above us,” Johnson added.
“So, in our minds, we were going into it in a good run of form but before the PPG was done we thought we had missed out on the play-offs.
“It has saved us a bit, but it is probably the fairest way you could do it because we would be judged without those extra games otherwise.”
Victory in the elimination match at Huish Park on Saturday will see the Bees hit the road again – to Notts County, in the semi-final – but Johnson reckons that playing behind closed doors has thrown home advantage out of the window.
Lottery
“We have almost gained an advantage because Yeovil won’t have the home support that they normally would have in the play-offs, it makes it a much more level playing field,” he added.
“The play-offs are a lottery anyway at the best of times, so in the middle of a pandemic in this situation, it is whoever turns up and gets the result on the day.”
After a decade at Underhill and then The Hive, Johnson is out of contract at the end of the season and in high demand. But he believes the risk of playing in the playoffs – and potentially leading the Bees to promotion – was one worth taking.
“To try and get another promotion on my CV is only going to help my career and it would be stupid to throw away when I’ve got a chance of getting promoted in the play-offs,” he added.
“It was a no-brainer for me as long as all the testing was put in place and the safety side of it was done.
“If you speak to anyone who’s played a long time in football, they’d tell you, you’re crazy if you turn down, playing in the playoffs, for me, it was worth the risk. You don’t get many chances to get promoted in your career.”