HappyMikey Johnston realizes that his circumstances at West Brom and Celtic are similar, but a run in the team has made all the difference.
In the latter hours of the January transfer window, the winger moved from the Scottish Premiership to the English Championship, giving Brendan Rodgers a plethora of attacking options in wide areas after £3 million player Nicolas Kuhn arrived from Rapid Vienna. Liel Abada was also in the building at the time, so Johnston had few options after the arrival of James Forrest, Luis Palma, Yang, and Daizen Maeda.
On loan, Johnston, fellow forward Marco Tilio, and Ireland cap Johnston, who was on the periphery of Parkhead, has demonstrated his greatest play south of the border. He has five goals to propel his new team, the Baggies, into the promotion battle as they aim for a play-off position.
The 24-year-old has now enumerated the factors that, in his opinion, have allowed him to reach his peak at the Hawthorns, with game time being a crucial one. “It’s the same problem there, just in a different place, and fortunately in a different way for me,” he said to Birmingham Live. Though it’s always healthy to have competition for spots, it seems more like it’s my position to lose here and I simply need to keep excelling every week.
“Towards the conclusion of the season, we’ll need to rely on individuals like Matty Phillips who are seasoned and have talent returning to the team. I simply felt that in order to play in my position and gain the manager’s and teammates’ faith, I needed a run of games.
It has been my motivator to get going since I’ve been here. A lot of injuries, many absences, and constant self-evident-building plagued me in my early career. Maybe the first week, then not the following; it’s never easy to stop playing consistently. I’ve been getting that at Albion, and that’s what I’ve needed.”
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