In her eighth year in Blue, the Bury-born attacker has witnessed radical changes during her career and is delighted to be part of the evolution of the women’s game with Nick Cushing’s side.
Having helped City to their first piece of silverware last season, creating the match-winning assist in the Continental Cup final, Johnston wants to play a key role once again in this year’s fight for trophies.
In recent matches, she has received more game time than she had done in the first half of the season and is desperate to make the most of her minutes on the pitch.
We caught up with the fun-loving forward ahead of tonight’s Continental Cup home clash with Durham...
In Krystle Johnston’s words...
Obviously, we want to retain our trophy so we need maximum points from all of our group games and you can’t beat playing at home, especially after we broke the attendance record last time out.
I have to say: I’ve been playing women’s football for a long time and I never thought I’d see more than 2,000 people at a women’s game!
For a lot of my career, it was just family and friends who came along to watch.
I remember last season we had a huge attendance against Bristol Academy and that was a big thing at the time. Now, we’re at our new home - the Academy Stadium - which is incredible and the crowds we’ve been getting are just fantastic. We’d love for that to continue.
It was great that so many fans came to the Birmingham game to show their support for the Lionesses after the World Cup but I think they also enjoyed the football itself - particularly the type of football we play - and hopefully, that will have encouraged them to come and watch us more often.
We need that support - walking out onto a pitch with the crowd behind us gives us an amazing feeling - and it could be the difference in the remainder of the season.
We’re on a good run of form at the moment and other results have gone our way recently which means we’ve quietly come back into the title race - and we’ve got a game in hand. We’re not getting carried away but we have to believe and having that extra backing could be key.
I’m expecting a really competitive game tonight. We played Durham away twice last season - once in a pre-season friendly and again in the Continental Cup - and although we seem to like playing them, I think they will come to our ground wanting to prove they’re not pushovers. We certainly don’t think they are.
In the last few weeks, I’ve had a bit more game time which I’m really happy about. I’m trying to take my opportunities as best I can and I think some of the other girls who haven’t played as much will be given the chance to do the same tonight, and we’ll all be up for it.
I scored against Durham last season and hopefully, I’ll do so again this evening - but getting the win is the most important thing.
What we achieved last year was amazing and we all want to experience success again. If we can carry on our momentum in the league and cup, who knows what we can do?
We didn’t start the season too well but we’ve all worked hard - even while the England girls were in Canada, the rest of us were training - and since then, everything has gone to plan. Of course, it’s helped that Toni Duggan has been on fire!
Hopefully, we’ll extend our winning streak tonight and keep our run going and confidence high - we’ve got some big games coming up.
As always, we’ll go into the game as professionals and fingers crossed, we can get another three points in Group Two.
Play your part in helping City to their fifth consecutive win as the Blues continue their push for a league and cup double at the Academy Stadium tonight (7pm kick-off).
Ticket information for the clash against Durham can be found here.
