Essendon midfielder Jason Johnson says the Bombers have a point to prove when they take on Port Adelaide at Colonial Stadium this Friday night. Johnson was referring to Essendon's thrashing at the hands of Port Adelaide in round one of this year's Ansett Cup. ""It was an embarrassing night for us. We let our supporters down so we owe it to them to play much better football this time around,"" Johnson said. The Port Adelaide mid-field is among the best in the competition so Johnson and his fellow on-ballers will have their hands full tomorrow night.

""They have got very good on-ballers who run hard and are very hard at the football. Last week we clicked pretty well in the middle so it should be a good contest,"" Johnson said. The 23-year-old was in brilliant form for the Bombers against the Kangaroos collecting 30 possessions and continually creating chances for the forwards.

""It was good to get the opening match out of the way and to play well. Our pre-season hadn't been great but everyone lifted a notch when it mattered. Now we have set the standard and we need to maintain it against Port Adelaide,"" he said.

The last time Essendon played Port Adelaide it won a hard-fought clash at Football Park by 31-points. Jason Johnson was best on ground, closely followed by Mark Johnson who did an excellent job on Gavin Wanganeen. In front of goal Mark Mercuri and Matthew Lloyd both kicked three.

The last time these two teams met at Colonial Stadium was in the opening round of 2000. The Bombers comfortably won the inaugural match at the stadium by 94-points.