Shaymen boss praises Johnson's attitude and character after loan move to Solihull

Johnson made his debut for Solihull in their 2-1 defeat to Carlisle yesterday, having joined on loan from Town until January.

He has been replaced as number one at Halifax this season by True Grant, and restricted to only playing in the National League Cup.

"If I had my way, I would have kept Sam in house," McGrath told the Courier.

"We spoke highly of him at our Q&A on Thursday night.

"He was exceptionally good with Granty, he's a really good leader.

"With Granty and Kobe (Mather) being so young, Johnno's a great role model of a senior player for them.

"But I sat down with Johnno and I could tell it was killing him. I don't ever want to do that with any player, it's the same with Owen (Bray), David (Kawa) and Dylan (Crowe), to stop players playing football.

"So when Johnno comes to me and says 'gaffer, I've been a great servant', which he has, 'I train well', which he does; but his attitude is he only wants to do it until January because if he's needed to be called upon he'll be ready to play.

"And we have a 24 hour recall, so if anything happens to True, Johnno's back with us and hopefully match fit, and flying."

Eighteen-year-old Mather, who has signed a one-year professional deal with Town, with an option of another year, was on the bench for Halifax's 2-2 draw at Southend on Saturday.

When asked if he will seek to bring in a second choice keeper, McGrath said: "We're actively looking but Kobe's done great in training.

"For me, it's really important we've got that community feel, that hometown feel to a player coming through.

"Every new player that travels away has to sing a song, and bless him, Kobe had to stand on a chair in the restaurant on Friday and sing to the lads.

"They do a bit of a Q&A and he said 'born in Halifax, live in Halifax and play for Halifax'. I dodn't know that, so it must be great for his family ansd friends to see him coming through.

"I'm all for that and huge credit to Jon Stewart, the goalkeeping coach, for getting Kobe up to speed.

"He might stay with us for a few weeks until we find somebody or he might do so well that we keep him longer-term, but we've got the safety net of a 24 hour recall on Johnno anyway."

Attackers David Kawa and Owen Bray were both absent again from Town's squad on Saturday, with both struggling to play regular football with The Shaymen this season.

"Me, Pabs and Jon sit down on a Wednesday/Thursday and go through the squad, and all the perumtaions on what could go wrong," McGrath said on their absence.

"We actually did say, if something happens to Max, does Dylan come on?

"If something happens to Raheem does Deniche come on?

"The call on Thursday was that Mackenzie could come on and Flinty could go to right-back, and Deniche could cover at left-back, and I thought he was good when he came on.

"It's unfortunate, that's the harfest thing as a manager, putting a squad list to travel and there's two or three players not in the squad.

"It's difficult because I've now got to go and try to pick them up on Monday, that's the juggling act of a manager I guess."