Johnson reveling in Kelly form

Lee Johnson believes there will be people in Scotland in disbelief at the fact Liam Kelly is playing for Oldham.

The 24-year-old midfielder, a former team-mate of Johnson's at Kilmarnock, moved to SportsDirect.com Park over the summer with ex-Latics captain Korey Smith moving in the opposite direction. Despite suffering from a lengthy absence due to a knee injury last term, Kelly has been a regular starter for Johnson during a 12-game unbeaten run which has sent them into Sky Bet League One's top six. Johnson admits that, given Kelly's knee troubles last season, they took a risk in penning him to a three-year deal but thinks it was one of the coups of the summer in getting the Scot to sign. "We are a club that has to feed off certain circumstances," Johnson explained. "Taking Liam Kelly on a three-year deal could have been seen as a risk because he had just been out for a year with a really bad knee injury and it was going to take him time to get back. "The thing people forget about Liam Kelly is he's massive in Scotland. He was Scotland Under-21 captain, Rangers and Celtic were all over him at the time he went to Bristol City. He came to England and was in a poor Bristol City side that got relegated then got a horrific injury. "It's amazing, it's only 100 miles away but it's a completely different bubble. When we actually got Liam Kelly it didn't half raise a few eyebrows in Scotland because you've got an international that was basically involved in the squads, even when he got injured. "If I'm (Scotland manager) Gordon Strachan I'm looking at it thinking 'how on earth have Oldham got Liam Kelly' because he was going to be in the plans to be in the next five or six squads had he not been injured." Oldham's impressive form has seen an increase in scouts at home games as prospective employers weigh up which of Latics' performers are worthy of consideration for bigger clubs. Losing players is nothing new to Johnson, who has seen the likes of Smith, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Jonathan Grounds, James Wesolowski, Adam Rooney and James Tarkowski depart the club over the past 12 months. Yet Johnson is more upbeat about those players who teams may try to pry away in January and beyond because of their contractual situations. "There's always a danger, I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing; you'd rather people look at your players than not," Johnson added of the increased attention in his troops. "Hopefully we've got to a stage where generally our sellable commodaties are on two or three-year contracts minimum which is good. It means it's going to be tough for somebody to go and prize them away. "Of course, we don't want to stand in people's way but hopefully we can get to a point where we can do a Peterborough and buy players for money but then sell them for a lot of money when we develop them. "It is frustrating when you develop a player and maybe you don't quite get the going rate due to contractual situations or needing the funds. That's the plan, I'm a part of that and I believe in that plan."