That man of course was Steve Bruce. And AJ certainly proved his ex-manager was wrong to get rid of the young, pacey striker when he scored the winning goal in Crystal Palaces surprise 1-0 victory of the blues. But when the goal went in something happened that I have never seen happen before at St Andrews. The home fans rose to their feet and clapped as the man now tipped for England-honours rolled the ball past Maik Taylor and stood in front of the Tilton.

"There was personal satisfaction to come back to such a massive place, a club I was at for seven years and I was so-called 'rejected' by, and to actually score against them was a good feeling."

"I didn't want to express it because I have a lot of respect for Birmingham."

"I've got respect for the club, respect for the fans, so the last thing I wanted to do was go and rub it in their faces. I had a little 'burst' as you do after you score, but I got a great reception when I came out to warm up and I always knew in the back of my mind that I wouldn't celebrate."

"I still keep in touch with boys like Martin Grainger, Stan Lazaridis and Ian Bennett - there will always be a soft spot in my heart for Birmingham."

As he stood there looking towards the blues faithful the thought must have surely crossed his mind that 'I could have done this for the Blues'. And many of the fans agree with that thought. With Heskey, Yorke, Morrison, John, Horsfield, Dugarry, Kirovski and Mooney all failing to score sufficient goals in the royal blue shirt whilst in the Premier League here is a boy who came through the blues academy who has already scored eight goals in the top division of English Football. More than the entire blues team put together.

Johnson refused to celebrate against the fans who were so supportive of him during his blues career. From the 20 yard strike he scored against West Brom at St Andrews, to the decisive penalty miss in the Worthington cup final the youngster always had support from the majority of the fans.

After being capped at Under-18 and Under-20 level whilst at Blues Johnson is now looking forward to a potential future with the senior England team. That would make him the first player to come out of the 'new' blues academy and achieve full honours with the England team. But Johnson isn't looking at getting in Sven's team just yet.

Instead he wants to keep on scoring, and hope that his old club can pull themselves out of the relegation zone and back into the form that seen them finish in the top 10 last season.

"Birmingham can get out of it,"

"Birmingham have bought a lot of players this year and it takes time for players to fit in and gel."

"All you have to do is look at the personnel in the team, Mario Melchiot, Dwight Yorke and Heskey - they are all top-name players. When they gel, I am sure they will end their drought."