United were 14th in the National League South at the time Johnson succeeded Gary Owers in the Plainmoor hotseat. However, he transformed their fortunes to such an extent that they clinched the league title by finishing ten points clear of second placed Woking. In the close season, all the noises coming out of Plainmoor suggest that he has made it clear that the Gulls won’t be in the National League merely to consolidate their newly found status.
Johnson has previous when it comes to ensuring that his sides don’t rest on their laurels. In his first spell as Yeovil Town manager, he led the Glovers to the brink of the play-offs in their first season in the Football League – the 2003-04 campaign – after winning the Conference title, as they only missed out on the play-offs on goal difference. While at Bristol City, he led the Robins to the 2008 Championship play-off final, where they succumbed 1-0 to Hull City courtesy of a Dean Windass strike, one year on from securing automatic promotion from League One, so Johnson has plenty of previous form for maintaining success at a higher level.
Since the introduction of National Leagues North and South in the 2005-06 season, four teams have won promotion to the National League and then into the Football League (Fleetwood Town and Salford City from the north and AFC Wimbledon and Newport County), and it’s a list that the Gulls are aiming to add their name to.
Over the summer, Johnson has opted for a ‘nip and tuck’ operation instead of major surgery and has added four new players over the close season, with Jake Andrews joining the Gulls on a permanent basis after scoring 12 goals from midfield while on loan from Bristol City. Andrews isn’t the only midfielder making a return to Plainmoor as Frank Vincent has re-joined on a season-long loan from AFC Bournemouth.
With Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Saikou Janneh returning to Ashton Gate, following their loan spells, Johnson has moved to fill the gap left by their departure with the signing of Armani Little, who impressed for Woking against the Gulls whilst on loan from Oxford United, and Dutch striker Manny Duku from his former club Cheltenham Town.
Johnson has also brought in Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Covolan from Isthmian League side Worthing FC as competition for Shaun MacDonald, who made the goalkeeper’s position his own last season after Alex Bass returned to parent club Portsmouth.
In defence, Ben Wynter recovered from a slow start to become a dependable performer at right-back and Liam Davis proved to be amongst the best left-backs in National League South. Both players are expected to continue their fine form in the National League.
As for the centre of defence, the recent loan acquisition of Joe Lewis Jean Yves Koue Niate and Kyle Cameron formed a capable partnership after Johnson switched from the 3-5-2 system favoured by Owers to 4-4-2.
In midfield, Ruairi Keating showed plenty of promise after switching from being a striker to the right wing and prior to his substitution through injury in United’s 3-3 draw away to Woking last season he had provided assists for six of the previous seven goals that the Gulls had scored until that point.
In addition to this, Keating also found the back of the net six times and goals from midfield played a big part in United’s success. Skipper Asa Hall chipped in with seven and Lemonheigh-Evans scored four whilst Jake Andrews and Kalvin Kalala both hit double figures with 12 and 10 respectively.
The latter two may not equal their respective tallies at a higher level, but it won’t be a surprise if they get mighty close to them.
Up front Jamie Reid was a man transformed by the arrival of Johnson; the former Northern Ireland Under-21 international had scored just the once in the 2018-19 season under Gary Owers, but went on to finish the campaign with 32 goals to his name. It was a transformation which drew parallels with former Yeovil striker Paddy Madden who scored 22 goals to help the Glovers win promotion to the Championship under Johnson after having only netted twice in 32 appearances for his previous club Carlisle United.
It’s fair to say that the chances of Reid bettering the six goals that he scored in Torquay’s last National League campaign in 2017-18 are hugely stacked in his favour.
At the time of writing all the signs that United will not be in the National League to make up the numbers as their revival under Gary Johnson enters its next phase.
