Everton Football Club News

• Nickname:Toffees
• Founded:1878
• Manager:David Moyes

• Ground:Goodison Park
• Capacity:42,440

Johnson wins backing

26 Sep 2007 - 09:25:32

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Everton intend to persevere with Andrew Johnson in attack even though the England international has failed to find the net so far this season.

The 26-year-old missed two penalties in last week's UEFA Cup clash with Metalist Kharkiv and has not scored since March.

However, assistant manager Alan Irvine insisted: "We'll stick by Andy. He's a terrific player and it was only last week that Sir Alex Ferguson was praising him after the Manchester United game.

"Sir Alex said he was a real handful, always on the move and a very good player and we think he's right.

"It's important there's no knee-jerk reaction on our part. He's hurting so much at the moment and we have to get him through it.

"Personally I don't think leaving him out is going to help solve the problem, he can only solve it out on the pitch, but we haven't decided if Andy will play yet (against Sheffield Wednesday in the Carling Cup).