The Robins boss had called for extra effort from his players and supporters on the back of a disappointing defeat at Queens Park Rangers last weekend.

And the manager got exactly what he wanted as goals from Dele Adebola and Bradley Orr ensured a victory that was more comfortable than the score suggested.

Wednesday's goal, a sweet volley from Lee Bullen, came deep into injury-time and could not prevent Brian Laws' team dropping into the Coca-Cola Championship relegation zone.

City are now level on points with second-place West Brom and Johnson was proud of the way his players bounced back from the 3-0 hammering at Loftus Road.

"That was a poor display. We don't take any defeat lightly and a lot of hard work went into getting things right again," he said.

"There was a decent atmosphere in the ground and Dele Adebola scored the type of goal we brought him in for early on to give everyone a boost.

"We had enough chances to have won 5-2 but I was delighted with the lads because they worked hard throughout and we got our football back together after a bad result."

Adebola ran onto Michael McIndoe's through ball to fire his first goal for City after eight minutes and Laws admitted his side found it hard to recover.

"When confidence is low the last thing you want is to concede early and Bristol had their tails up from that moment," he said.

"The second goal killed us off after we had begun the second half brightly. We don't look as though we have three goals in us at the moment and the players know that.

"I'm trying to bring in another striker but it isn't easy. For one thing, not every player wants to join a club in our position, facing a real battle.

"We have some home games to come and need to capitalise on them. At the moment we are in the cart and the only way to get out is by winning matches."

Full back Orr ended any doubt about the outcome, shooting home precisely from a narrow angle in the 56th minute after Adebola's shot had been blocked into his path.

Nick Carle had missed two good first-half opportunities to make the game safe, although he was denied on the second occasion by a fine Lee Grant save.

Wednesday went close through a Graham Kavanagh free-kick which flashed wide in the first half and a second-half header from substitute Sean McAllister was palmed over by Adriano Basso.

Marcus Tudgay also threatened with a 53rd-minute volley, while at the other end Grant made another good stop to deny McIndoe.