Interview ~ Roger Johnson

After the recent home defeat against Stockport County we caught up with our rising young star, Roger Johnson.
Here’s what he had to say to us...

WWISC: Roger you’ve managed to burst into the first in the first team this year, what are your feelings about that?

Roger: I had a run of about seven games last season before I got the bad injury, which was very disappointing as I felt I was doing well and of course I wanted to stay in there. Then during the close season I worked hard with physio's David Jones and Terry Evans they got me through it and that injury was hard to take being still very young and it was hard especially having been in the limelight so much.

WWISC: Roger you’re still young.

Roger: Of course I had to wait for this season to start and I was going quite well early on but after about five games I had bad game against Wigan and was dropped. I then spent a lot of time on the substitutes bench but then managed to make a first start against Bristol City and luckily enough I’ve been in the side ever since which is about 16 games.

WWISC: Just nineteen and skipper of the team today then Roger.

Roger: Yes! The gaffer called me in the said that he wanted to play me in the middle today and as I have largely playing on the left recently he asked me how I felt about playing in the middle which I replied that it was fine. He than told me that he was going to be made captain as well and what did I think about it. With that I was of course absolutely gob smacked I told him that I would love to do it.

WWISC: You used to be the captain of the Youth side didn’t you?

Roger: Yes! I captained that side, in fact I’ve always been a leader ever since I started playing football in the Sunday league I’ve always been a leader and sorted players out and been able to get everybody firing but unfortunately it didn’t work today.

WWISC: I certainly noticed that when Stockport scored their equalising goal you were certainly trying to gee players up and you were getting quite agitated...

Roger: I have to say I was hoping that I would never feel the same way again as I did after the Chesterfield game certainly not soon as this its absolutely devastating. I can’t really talk for anybody else but certainly it was for me It’s really, really disappointing and I hate letting in goals especially four of them after we were one nil up. We’re trying to drag ourselves out of the lower part of the league and I thought we’d done it this week when we scored our goal. But we gave away four sloppy, Sloppy goals.

WWISC: I agree with you, we’re sitting watching and just to give away for goals in the last quarter of an hour, it’s very emotional. My granddaughter has gone home today really, really upset. She has never ever seen Wycombe Wanderers lose before and she now thinks that Wycombe have lost their good luck charm.

Roger: I know exactly how she feels we’ve got this sponsors dinner tonight and making conversation is going to be very, very hard.

WWISC: And of course I’ve got you around here doing an interview now.

Roger: Oh! I don’t mind that, you guys helped to support the youth team in the past so I’ve always got time to speak to you.

WWISC: So Roger how many of your former youth team-mates are coming through the ranks and now actually joining you in the first Team?

Roger: Ian Simpemba was in my age group, in fact Ian, Myself and Leon Phelan were the three players who were supposed to make an impact. Unfortunately Leon was released and Sips is still waiting for his chance by sitting on the bench a few times this year. Hopefully he’ll get a couple of games if we can get this last win this year, especially as a gaffer has been talking about going with the youth in the future. Luke Oliver has done well and is now playing in the reserves, and Mark Philo is one to watch.

WWISC: I came Adams Park the other day to watch the youth team masquerading as the reserves and I have to say that young Mark Philo was very impressive.

Roger: Definitely on his day he is a very, very good player but he has lapses when he doesn’t perform. Of course everyone does that when their young but he is definitely want to watch. I think Stuart Hole is another good one. I don’t get to see them play very often now as I’m no longer involved with the youth team and of course the reserve team games most of them have been played over at Aylesbury so far this season. But now that their back here I’ll be able to sit and watch them more often and see what’s happening. Of course I can always end up back in the reserve side.

WWISC: are you still able to play for the youth team or have you now moved past that part of your life?

Roger: No I’m miles past been able to play for the Youth team now. In fact I think it was the beginning of last season and I could no longer play for the youth team. The youth team is good but you want to progress.

WWISC: I’m sure you’d rather play for the first team wouldn’t you?

Roger: Definitely I’d much rather be involved in the first Team. It’s nice when you’re winning, but it’s horrible when you’re losing, but then that’s football.

WWISC: It may sound horrible to say that I have to say I am very glad to hear that losing hurts you because some people seem to think that supporters we don’t really understand what’s going on the pitch and that we don’t understand the game. But most of us have at sometime in our lives played football. We’ve watched football for years; we understand what’s going on and when Wycombe Wanderers lose it hurts us. It’s even the levelled at us that we’re not passionate about the game. We may not be very noisy at the moment but believe me we are very, very passionate about Wycombe Wanderers. We come to home matches and travel to away games, and travelling to away games now is not cheap it’s quite an expensive day out. After travelling all that distance to an away game and the team doesn’t perform really hurts...

Roger: I think that the lands all honestly hurt when we lose, and of course where the supporters who have travelled so far and paid out their money they don’t want to see performances like these last two at Chesterfield and here today. To be honest it was very embarrassing to be seen playing like that and I thought we had done well today. We kept it nil-nil with a clean sheet in the first half, and then 20 to 25 minutes from the end Mickey Simpson scored his goal. We were one-nil up and we’re looking to go on for the winner when it all went horribly wrong. I don’t know why we do that we were just inviting the pressure onto ourselves and we’ve got to snap out of that. I’ve been getting annoyed with people who say that we can’t defend, but there is only so much as a defender that you can do. I really get annoyed by people who make those comments. You read the papers you see people’s views on it. We didn’t hold the ball up enough today I think.

WWISC: We all know that if the ball isn’t held up further up the field it will keep coming back to the defence all the time and you guys must be exhausted.

Roger: We are! But then it’s our job and I love doing it. Being a bit knackered isn’t the problem is ‘losing’, I hate losing, I’m sure everybody does I don’t suppose I hate it anymore then anybody else does. I’m the sort of person who’d hate losing even if it was just throwing a coin against the wall. I’m a winner and I hate to lose at anything.

WWISC: Are you happy here at Wycombe Wanderers?

Roger: Yes, I’m very happy here. I’ve come though the youth system and the gaffer has given me a three-year contract. So its been a great privilege today having been here since I was sixteen and been an apprentice and now captaining the side at the age of nineteen. I just hope that it doesn’t get taken off me because we had a poor result today. I hope I get another bite of the cherry because I believe that I can gee the lads up and get some good results.

WWISC: So where do you call home?

Roger: I was born in Ashford Middlesex but my family moved down to Bournemouth when I was about five. Dad had a job down there so we all moved down. I’ve got two brothers and we did al our schooling in Bournemouth.

WWISC: So how did you get snapped up by Wycombe Wanderers?

Roger: I was at Portsmouth as a schoolboy and two of the lads from my Sunday league side were at Portsmouth and they saw me and invited me up as well. I was there for a year and a half and I didn’t particularly get on with the people there, I didn’t get a chance. I played quite a few games but when it came to the apprentice stage they told me that they weren’t going to keep me on. I was heartbroken having never been rejected before and it’s a bitter pill to swallow. I was playing for Dorset county then and a Wycombe Wanderers scout Pete McKellar was there and he recommended me to Ada and I was invited up to play a few games in the youth team so it was quite a big level to step up to as I was only fifteen playing as a schoolboy in the youth team. I played two game and they gave me an apprenticeship straight away so I was really chuffed with that as it was a two-year apprenticeship. I had a good run and had the good luck to play in the first team up at Cambridge on the last game of the season and its gone from there really. I had another appearance the following year against Reading and then the next season was last season when I had that good run in the team.

WWISC: It was a bit ironic that you should get injured at Bournemouth of all places.

Roger: that was unbelievable, I had all my mates and family down there and I was playing really well. I think it was 0-0 at the time when I went off and the lads did really well for us to win 2-1 in the end. But the injury was bad, I thought at the time that I’d be alright straight away but when I woke up on the Sunday morning I knew it was pretty bad.

WWISC: What was the extent of the injury?

Roger: I managed to tear my Cartilage and it was a 90% tear. I thought they’d just take a little bit off and I’d be back in a couple of months but in the end I was out for six-months with it by the time I managed to get back in. I had the injury in February and it was August before I was fit again and even then it was still a bit sore.

WWISC: So then young man, I believe that there is a young lady in your life?

Roger: A lovely girl, Louise. Its funny really because she moved down to Bournemouth about three minutes from my house and I never even met her at first or middle school but I met her at upper school. Her family had moved down from London the same year that I did, so it was weird that we’d moved at the same time and lived very close to each other and didn’t know each other. We’ve now been together for about three years.

WWISC: So she’s down there and you’re up here now.

Roger: She works in London and she lives with her Nan in East Acton near QPR’s ground so I can go and see her during the week. She goes home at the weekend and I also go home Saturday night so we see each other then as well.

WWISC: what about your parents?

Roger: Mum and Dad have separated, Mum lives with my two brothers and Dad lives with his new partner in Portsmouth but he come to my games and so does my Mum, there’s not a problem there and my girlfriend comes to every game and my Dads a good follower, he’s been to every game. Its brilliant, I love people coming to watch me play, it’s really nice to know that they’re there.

WWISC: You’ve mentioned that you have brothers.

Roger: I’ve got two brothers both older than me but I’m the tallest. They’re twenty-three and twenty-two and I’m only nineteen. Mum works for a company called Haskins on a computer and dad works for Este lauder where he’s been since we moved.

WWISC: well thank you for talking to us and we don’t want to delay you anymore as we’re off to the Sponsors dinner now.

Roger: That’s alright, anytime you want.

WWISC: I must say that I found Roger to be a charming young man. It’s obvious that he hates losing as badly as any ‘Died in the Wool’ Wycombe Wanderers fan is. Lets hope he can inject that throughout the club and embarrassing defeats like Chesterfield and Stockport County become things of the past.