Brennan Johnson: “I thought, ‘never give up’ and kept believing a chance could come”

Brennan Johnson admits he’s his ‘biggest critic at times’ - so what was the critic saying to him after his late, late winner in the Carabao Cup at Coventry City on Wednesday night?

Speaking after our 2-1 win at the CBS Arena, Brennan told us: “Tonight, when I came on, it was probably earlier than I thought (it would be) and I’m trying to stay positive, to be confident in myself and at the end, I thought, ‘never give up’, kept believing a chance could come, that the ball would bounce to me and tried to get into good areas.

“I feel like I’ve done that more this season than I did last season. As soon as Rodri (Bentancur) picked up the ball, he’s a great player, and I just wanted to run into a space where he could find me and I wouldn’t have to do too much. It was a great pass, and I was happy I was in the right position to capitalise.”

Brennan provided the calmest of finishes to complete our late turn around in an eventful third round tie.

It’s fair to say we were on the rocks midway through the second half when Brandon Thomas-Asante fired the Sky Blues in front and the home side created opportunities to extend their lead.

Ange Postecoglou said afterwards that we ‘had to hang in there’ and we did that before the arrivals of the likes of Deki Kulusevski, James Maddison and Heung-Min Son off the bench helped turn momentum in our favour. Deki went close before setting up Djed Spence for the equaliser on 88 minutes and it was job done when Bentancur won possession and threaded the perfect through pass for Brennan to finish in the second minute of added time.

Reflecting on the game, Brennan said: “Probably the main point is we're disappointed with the performance. I think we were a bit sloppy, but at the end of the day it came down to just not giving up. In games like that, I feel like once it gets to 80, 85 minutes... I just thought even though none of us were really at our best, we found a way to win and that’s something that we can take positives from.”

As for his winner, Brennan added: “It’s my first goal of the season, which I would have liked to have come a bit earlier, but I think scoring like this right at the end, it’s important, positive for the team. To be honest, it was kind of backs against the wall a little bit so just to win it at the end, to get through, showing fight at the end, it’s good for everyone and obviously I’m happy to score the winner.”