"I'd love nothing more than to be the one to take us into the Football League," says Town skipper Johnson as Halifax prepare for play-off eliminator at Solihull

Not only is the Halifax skipper one of the most experienced and level-headed players in the group, he is a veteran of three previous play-off campaigns.

Johnson helped Town to promotion into the fifth tier under Billy Heath in 2017 and was part of the two sides that reached the play-offs under Pete Wild in the 2019-20 and 2021-22 campaigns.

"There'll be a few young lads who might be a bit nervous so if they want to come to me for advice, I'll be more than happy to offer that," said the 31-year-old, whose 14 clean sheets was the most in the National League this season.

"But we know as a team what we're capable of, I think it's just about keeping calm, but I'm a calm person anyway so I don't need to worry about that.

"I don't get too riled up or anything, and I'm confident in the boys that we can go there and do a job."

There being Solihull, who Halifax visit on Wednesday to battle it out for a place in the play-off semi-finals.

The Shaymen booked their place in the top seven with a comfortable 3-0 win at Eastleigh on Saturday.

"It was the perfect game for us, the first goal really settled us down but we dominated from start to finish," Johnson said.

"The lads have been som impressive all week and then to go to a team who have scored a lot of goals and get a clean sheet, and dominate the whole game, was really impressive.

"This team's got hunger, desire, passion and I think we showed that all week.

"Obviously we went to two different grounds, four games inside a week to get us into the play-offs, so it's credit to the lads, they've put all the hard work in and I'm buzzing for them."

Johnson admits not too many observers would have had Halifax in the play-offs in their predictions at the start of the campaign.

"But we've been there or thereabouts most of the season," he said.

"I've been confident, I was confident this week going into it, and when we turned up at the ground on Saturday I thought there was a real aura about us that I felt we were going to get the job done, I felt it at the hotel and at the ground.

"You could see it on the pitch.

"We've worked so hard all season to put ourselves in this position, we were never going to just give up on it.

"It's only part of the job done though in my eyes.

"There's a tough game to come on Wednesday and then it would be another tough one after that but I'm looking forward to it.

"It's my fourth play-offs with the club now and I'd love nothing more than to be the one to take us into the Football League."

On Wednesday's play-off eliminator, Johnson said: "Everyone knows the ultimate goal eventually but we can't look past Solihull, they're a really good team.

"We were going through a bit of a transitional phase where we changed formation when we played them at home and after that week, we came out a stronger side where we went on a great run.

"You don't get too many great days in football and Saturday was a really good day.

"We'll rest up, which we need after the week we've had, but we'll enjoy it and then we'll kick on."

Johnson there is a different kind of pressure in play-off games.

"But we can go there full of confidence after Saturday's performance, and there's no reason why we can't go there and get a victory," he said.

"I'm not going to sit here and say there isn't any pressure, there is, it's a big game.

"You work all season for these kinds of games.

"No-one wants to make mistakes in these kinds of games but if we play as well as we know we can, we can get the win."

Johnson also says the Town fans will be vital at Solihull after showing their support to the team with some fantastic turnouts in the past week.

"They've been with us all the way through the season but have had to deal with us playing away from The Shay, which must have been hard," Johnson added.

"It's tough times as it is, so we appreciate all the support.

"We got all their messages before the Eastleigh game on Twitter, they were put up on a screen for us.

"We really appreciate their support at Accrington and Chesterfield.

"We only got a couple of points there but they helped get us over the line.

"They've got a massive role to play on Wednesday."