Ryan Mason singles out Mikey Johnston as inspiration to West Brom fringe players

Add as preferred source on Google

Ryan Mason has urged his West Bromwich Albion players to take inspiration from Mikey Johnston after he took his chance.

Johnston was restored to the starting XI for West Brom’s draw with Portsmouth and repaid the faith by scoring a superb individual goal.

It came off the back of the winger’s cameo in the win at Wrexham where he provided two assists from the bench.

Mason needs all of his squad singing from the same hymn sheet and has challenged his players to replicate the form shown by the Republic of Ireland.

• READ MORE: Carlton Palmer’s shock Dejphon Chansiri cashflow claim as Sheffield Wednesday ‘£40m caveat’ mooted

Ryan Mason sends message to West Brom players

It had been a turbulent summer for Johnston who had a £5m move to Flamengo break down but he has come back into the West Brom side and Mason has been impressed with what he has seen.

He told the Express and Star: “Everyone saw what he did last week and when you give Mikey the ball in those areas, he can create anything and it was a fantastic shot.

“He earned his start today and contributed with a goal.

“But we are going to need everyone in the squad, it is a squad game, we’ll need the substitutes coming on and players not involved, they are going to be important, and they need to be focussed.

“Mikey has had his chance today and he took it with a fantastic strike.”

Mikey Johnston is finally replicating the form that earned West Brom move

After impressing during his loan spell in the West Midlands a couple of seasons ago, the Baggies took the plunge on signing him permanently.

Since then, the 26-year-old has only shown flashes of what he can do but the strong start to the season suggests he could be back to his best.

Having Johnston firing on all cylinders is only a positive for the Baggies’ promotion push.