Johnston emerged from Hearts’ youth set-up 16 years ago, a skinny, angular winger with a callow appearance. Now, his frame remains lean and age has attacked only his hairline, but he has evolved into a central midfielder. After Johnston spent a season with Rennes in 1996-97, Jefferies tried to re-sign him three times, twice for Hearts and once for Bradford. He was eventually reunited with him two years ago, when Johnston returned after an itinerant spell with Rangers and in England. Having brought him up through the ranks at Tynecastle, it was Jefferies who then revived his faltering career. There is a bond of trust between them.
“It helps if you know that a manager likes you, it gives you confidence,” Johnston says. “Him and Billy talk to players, they get their point across well. They tell you to go out and express yourself and confidence is a big thing in football. He’s done this a lot, if he likes somebody then he keeps them in mind and goes back for them.”
Some players suit certain eras of their career and Johnston seems to have found a welcoming assurance as he shuffled into his thirties. He turns 33 next month, and his contract runs out at the end of the season, but he is not waylaid by a sense of impending finality. “Kilmarnock usually wait to see if they’re in the top six, because the gaffer has to see what his budget is,”
he says. “I’ll just wait like everybody else, but I want to get something sorted out.”
Johnston retains the vitality that allows him to settle inconspicuously into a dressing room full of players barely outwith their teens. Some of his teammates may not vividly remember the hat-trick that he once famously scored for Hearts at Ibrox, but they know from experience that there is an animation to him on the field that is rewarding.
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Jefferies allows Johnston and Locke to occasionally take training sessions and Johnston often assists his brother, Sammy, the manager of Neilston Juniors. He believes that his body will allow him to keep playing, but he is also driven by a need to remain involved when time finally restrains him. “I’m as fit as I ever was and I’m not a drinker.
If you look after yourself, you’ve got a good chance,” he adds. “I enjoy taking training and it makes you think about the game a wee bit more. I know it’s going to be hard to get into coaching, because there are so many people wanting these jobs, but I’d love to stay involved in one way or another.”
When Johnston first returned to Scotland from Middlesbrough, he didn’t have the benefit of a pre-season and consequently wasn’t as fit or sharp as his teammates. The following campaign saw him start fully prepared, but also in a new position, in central midfield. It has almost been like a rebirth for him, as his fluent feet, passing range and awareness combined to turn him into an effective playmaker, although he is quick to acknowledge the ability of the players around him. “People think you need to be good at tackling and big and strong to play in the middle, which isn’t always the case,” he adds. “I’d like to have tried it earlier in my career, but I can’t complain too much. You get more of the ball and you’re more involved.”
There is a wealth of experience in Johnston that other players would find value tapping into. His move to Rangers, the club he supported as a boy, in 2000 ended only in frustration, with few first-team opportunities. Nevertheless, he would always advise players to go to the Old Firm if they get the chance. Just as Kris Boyd made the move to Ibrox from Rugby Park last January, another Kilmarnock striker, Steven Naismith, has been linked with a transfer to Rangers in recent weeks and Johnston admits that it will “only be a matter of time before somebody takes him”. Yet Jefferies has always had an understanding of the act of renewal, because the young players he developed were often much sought after.
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Just as Johnston worked with Jefferies at the start of his career, their partnership is proving fruitful as he begins to enter the final stages.