The home form continues to confound. Ranking 16th in the league now for results on their own patch, Bristol City are second in the league when judged for results on the road.
Friday night in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras was a chance for the Robins to make a statement and fly up to third in the league.
They blew it. But the head coach well knows that and will dust himself off to try again soon, though some tough fixtures are on the horizon.
As to the defeat to the Blues - several City players were not at the races when facing Pep Clotet's team. And Johnson was not shy in pointing that out.
"I thought it was a great start from us - we came out the traps absolutely rapid and you try and assess within the game, of course you do, because you've got half time to tactically draw on the players," said Johnson following the game.
"And I thought at that point a couple of individuals were really poor for us today, which was frustrating.
"I thought we got stretched, which was very unlike us and is the bit I've got to look at to why.
"Was it their strength in individual duels or our poor individual performances in that 20-25 minutes.
"We had half a chance to make it two when Andy Weimann chested and should have volleyed it and hit the target - but that may have been harsh on him.
"But our distances were too big from top to bottom: whether that was over-eager in central midfielders to go and press or Scott Hogan running in behind and stretching us, or whether that was because a couple of individuals were twos and threes in that first half out of 10..." he added.
City can make amends when Derby County come to Ashton Gate next Wednesday while the club will hope that Wigan can get a point against Preston North End at the weekend to keep the Robins in the top six of the league.
But a 'poor' first half from City did the damage in Friday night's game.
"I thought that after 10-15 minutes we were really poor. And that's where we've lost the game," said Johnson.
"We didn't defend well enough and we didn't stop enough crosses. We didn't show enough desire to win individual duels. We were busy fools - and that was the bit that was really frustrating because we haven't looked like that in a while now."
Following the game, Johnson admitted that Kasey Palmer missed the match because of respiratory chest problems - not anything heart related.
