Johnson describes euphoria in Man Utd win

Joe Bryan's thunderbolt gave the hosts a deserved lead before Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalised with a fierce free kick.

But up popped Korey Smith to prod the ball beyond Sergio Romero in the 93rd minute.

Johnson told BCTV: "He (Smith) will dine off that for many years, We can now officially sack Brian Tinnion and Scotty Murray and Joe Bryan and Korey Smith can be the new icons.

"I'm delighted for the players. It wasn't just them two, every single one of them were outstanding tonight and it was amazing.

"I'm almost speechless but the feeling in that moment, the euphoric feeling and the noise that went up was phenomenal. I'm very proud of the football club tonight."

And City's hard work has been rewarded with a two-legged semi-final tie against Manchester City. The first fixture will be played at the Etihad Stadium, week commencing January 8th.

Johnson said: "Wow. OMG. It's amazing. We'll enjoy this one.

"There are three top teams and us but hopefully four top teams as people look at it now. It's just phenomenal, the players have been amazing since the first day in pre-season and they fully deserve this.

"The fans do too, to have a night like that and the kids will tell their kids and their kids. They will go down in folklore."

Reflecting on Bryan's opening strike, Johnson continued: "I swear to you, he's done about 20 of those in training!

"He's unbelievable and the confidence, technique and power to just strike the ball like he did, well it''s Roy of the Rovers stuff and it's difficult to really describe but again, it's fascinating."

And on Korey's winner?

Johnson said: "I'm thinking 'no, surely not' and it's just gone in. I've shown a turn of pace down the line and the only person there was a ball-boy that got an absolute rib-crushing from me.

"Louis Carey said it was great to see me picking up my big brother! Typical Louis Carey but it was just phenominal.

"What do you do you, where do you run to? You'd have to ask the players and the feeling that they would have got.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere, it was brilliant. That's what we're after, sell-out crowds with a huge atmosphere against probably the biggest name in football in Manchester United as a football club and an enterprise.

"They played tough players as well, that was the key to it. When you saw the teamsheet it was almost rude. But we showed we have top players and too and showed that on any given day we can do our best to compete."