IF Plymouth Argyle are going to win the battle they are waging to stay in the Coca-Cola Championship, it is highly likely that their new central-midfield partnership will play a key part in doing so. Team captain Carl Fletcher has been joined in the heart of the action in the middle of the park by another experienced campaigner who has played international and Premier League football.
Replica Girard Perregaux Fletcher, who has represented Wales and West Ham United, and Damien Johnson, who has seen service with Northern Ireland and Birmingham City, have been holding the fort in the crucial central midfield positions since Johnson (pictured right) joined the Pilgrims from the Blues at the end of January.
The Home Park men have found the right role for Johnson. Fletcher now has the benefit of a sidekick who, like him, has learned his trade the hard way in top-flight and Championship combat over a number of years. The newcomer feels that his partnership with the skipper will keep on improving, once he has fully settled into life with the Devon team.
"I still feel I can play better," Johnson said. "I still feel I'm finding my feet a little bit, but it has been good to play alongside someone like Fletch. He's a very good player at this level, and he has made it a lot easier for me."
Johnson scored his first goal for Argyle - and his first goal in senior football since he was on the mark for Birmingham in March 2007 - to earn the Pilgrims a valuable point against Swansea City on Tuesday. The 31-year-old has admitted that he made hard work of converting his chance, though.
Replica jimmy choo After Plymouth had been awarded a penalty late in the match, Argyle striker Jamie Mackie saw his spot-kick saved by Swansea goalkeeper Dorus De Vries. The Pilgrims got another go, however, after the Dutchman was deemed to have strayed off his goal-line.
Johnson took the Pilgrims' second penalty, but he too was thwarted by a save from De Vries. The midfield man got to the loose ball first, however, and rammed a volley into the roof of the net to give the Home Park men a 1-1 draw.
Johnson explained the events that led up to his 86th-minute goal by saying: "Jamie wasn't that confident, and Fletch said: 'Will you hit it?' I had no problems with that. The usual penalty taker [Alan Judge] wasn't playing, so there was a bit of indecision anyway.
"It worked out in the end," Johnson added. "Where Jamie had hit his kick, there was a bit of a divot, so I was just afraid of slipping. I was concentrating more on keeping my footing, so I didn't get as much height on the kick as I normally like to get. I was just glad to get another bite at it, and I stuck it away." When he was asked if Argyle deserved the point they won on Tuesday, Johnson replied: "We didn't play well, we know that, and it was a poor game. "We got a bit nervous and a bit edgy when they got their goal [in the first minute of the second half]. That happens when you're down the bottom, but the guys showed character," the Ulsterman added. "We put them under pressure in the last 15 or 20 minutes, and that was enough to get us a goal." After taking a point off fourthplaced Swansea in midweek, Argyle face another tough test tomorrow against sixth-placed Leicester City at Home Park. "Leicester have done really well this season," Johnson admitted. "They're well organised and tough to play against, but they won't relish coming down here." Johnson hopes that the Pilgrims will take heed of how they played when they came from behind to win 3-1 at Barnsley last Saturday, when they looked more incisive in attac
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