FC Halifax Town: Johnson not fazed by prospect of penalties at Wembley

Should Sunday's FA Trophy final go to penalties, expect goalkeeper Sam Johnson to be the calmest person inside Wembley.

The Shay stopper already has experience of helping the club to spot-kick success in their shoot-out win at Gateshead in the quarter-finals by saving a penalty.

The Port Vale loanee is predicting the game will be decided by a shoot-out, and is already relishing the prospect.

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“I think it’s going to go to penalties, and I’d love that,” he said.

“I’ve got a good record on penalties so I wouldn’t mind. I saved a couple at Gateshead in the quarter-finals.

“Every time it’s gone to penalties and I’ve been playing, I’ve always done well.

“You’re in a win-win situation as a goalkeeper I suppose. If you lose no-one can really say it’s your fault and you win you might be hero.”

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Johnson says he has thoroughly enjoyed his loan spell with Halifax and is optimistic about ending his time at the club with a Wembley win.

“I’m very confident,” he said. “We had a good run of form towards the end of the season, even though we ended up going down.

“I think we’ve got a good team. If you take away the first 15 matches of the season we’d have been in and around the play-offs.

“We beat them 4-2 at home. I don’t think they’re anything magnificent. Obviously they’ve gone up and we’ve gone down but I thought we ran them ragged at our place.

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“I thought they deserved to go up last weekend but hopefully we can cause an upset.

“I think we’ll be playing to hit them on the counter-attack so I might be busy.

“They’re a good team but if we can soak up some pressure and get them on the counter we might get some joy.”