Eagles boss hails Johnson

5:23pm Friday 15th February 2008

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NEIL Warnock has paid tribute to the impact made by Gary Johnson at Bristol City ahead of Monday evening's meeting with Crystal Palace.

The former Yeovil boss has helped push Bristol to the brink of promotion and Warnock believes they are genuine contenders to make the step up to the Premiership.

He explained: "The sign of a good side is the ability to bounce back when they lose and Bristol City have done that on numerous occasions this year.

"I think they let in six in one game away from home somewhere and then won the next one. It is consistent and not a flash in the pan from them.

"It has helped them coming up together from last year and it reminds me a bit of when I was at Notts County because we came up from that division and were always hovering around the play-offs and then went up through the play-offs.

"That's how Bristol are and I think they will be very, very close to automatic promotion.

"They are the ones who nobody is really looking at because they haven't got the finances of the other five up there."

Warnock added: "Gary has done an amazing job to get them where they are.

"They play football through midfield the best they can, but even he has had to buy Adebola because there was probably that element missing he felt.

"I've tried to sign Adebola three or four times in my career, but never quite made it.

"It is probably what we need - a good pitch and a good atmosphere. There will be a good crowd and it is on television."

Crystal Palace's own bid to propel themselves into the promotion race has hit a stumbling block in recent weeks following the end of their 15-game unbeaten run.

The latest setback came on Tuesday evening when the Eagles lost 1-0 at home to Ipswich following a fluke goal.

Warnock publicly lambasted several of his players after the game, but admits three days on the display may not have been as poor as he initially claimed, although he still questioned some individuals' efforts.

He said: "I didn't think it was that bad, if I'm honest.

"I thought we had the best chances and it isn't very often Clinton doesn't put one of them away and I didn't think Julian had too much to do.

"Southampton I felt we should have beaten, and we should have got a result at Leicester, so it is only Charlton I've been majorly disappointed with."

He added: "The other night, the opportunity was there to go three points clear of the next team and get into the play-off positions, that was the biggest disappointment.

"I thought three or four lads were disappointing.

"They know who they are and they've got to brighten up a bit now and show me it was a one-off, because it was the first time I've seen a number of players all together have a bad game."