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Johnson duo aim to be History Boys

Wed 21 May, 04:45 PM


Gary and Lee Johnson will attempt to write their names into football history when Bristol City face Hull in the Championship play-off final.The Robins manager and midfielder will become the only father-son duo to achieve promotion from all four divisions should the Avon club be victorious at Wembley on Saturday.

Lee Johnson would stand alone as the only player to have achieved the feat. He was at Yeovil when the they were crowned Conference champions in 2003 and he also collected a League Two winners' medal with the Glovers in 2005.

The 26-year-old helped City to a second-placed finish in League One last season in his first campaign at Ashton Gate, meaning that all three promotions came under his father.

Gary Johnson would emulate the manager of the side his team beat in the semi-finals.

Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock is currently the only manager to have had clubs promoted from all four divisions.

Warnock guided Scarborough into the Football League in 1987 before achieving back-to-back promotions from the old Division Three and Division Two with Notts County in 1990 and 1991.

Warnock completed the set when he got Plymouth promoted from the fourth tier via the play-offs in 1996.

Ahead of a potentially historic day at Wembley, Lee Johnson said: "It would be a magnificent honour and something that would make me and my family very proud.

"I think that just shows how hard it has been to have to prove myself at every level and show that I am good enough.

"I would be very proud if I could get that record, but on the day it won't be about that should we get the right result.

"It would be about the whole squad because if I am lucky enough to have that honour bestowed on me, then I know I would not have been able to do it without my team-mates."

Johnson senior was equally magnanimous about his own personal glory, deflecting the focus from his own career to those of his players.

Gary Johnson said: "I treat that situation the same as the players treat it. I desperately want this group of players to get to the pinnacle of their careers, and that would be the Premier League.

"If I get there then it means they have got there and that would just be fantastic, and that's the truth. It isn't just about me or Lee, it is about getting this entire group of people to the promised land.

"The objective is to get them promoted and then worry about your own promotion later, but those kind of accolades are the things you strive for when you set out as a manager.

"A lot of the time it is about being at the right club at the right time to progress, sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you are unlucky.

"I have no doubt that the decisions I have made over the years have been the right ones"

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