Gary Johnson has issued a heartfelt 'thank you' to all those who stood by him and his under-fire Bristol City players during their hour of need.

City's manager admitted the days following last week's abject 6-0 home drubbing by Cardiff had been among the most difficult of his career as the critics rounded on him and angry fans called for his sacking.

But club chairman Steve Lansdown gave the man who led City to promotion to the Championship his unequivocal backing, while the Londoner received support in the media and numerous messages of goodwill from fans who believed he should stay.

Johnson was especially touched by the hardcore supporters that made the long journey to Middlesbrough at the weekend and waited in the snow for the arrival of the team bus to show their appreciation of both manager and players.

And those loyalists were rewarded in the form of a much-improved performance which saw City's players keep a clean sheet and leave the Riverside Stadium with a precious point and their reputations restored.

"I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to all those who have stood strong and shown their support in the last few days," declared Johnson.

"It was a nice feeling to get off the coach and see those people standing there showing their support for me and the lads. As I always say, we appreciate those who show their appreciation for us and those who made the long trek to the north-east and made themselves heard deserve a lot of credit.

"It's about the club having passion, and I think this club has come together and shown that passion."

He added :"We knew we had to prove that last week's result was a fluke, and I thought we did that with this performance. It was important that the lads showed their commitment to the cause and, as a team out of form playing against one which had scored four goals in their last game, we needed to work very hard.

"I thought we showed an excellent work-rate and there was a lot of endeavour. The lads were a bit nervous from the last game, but at least they showed their passion and reacted in the right way.

"They did it for themselves, for me, for the people (in the media) who have backed us and for the fans that travelled such a long way to support them. I'm sorry for our fans that we couldn't pick up a win but, morally, it felt like one."

Although Saturday's result and performance will alleviate some of the pressure felt by manager and players, Johnson acknowledges the importance of beating Coventry City at Ashton Gate in the next game. He said: "I'm not kidding myself that we are out of the woods, because we are not. We have a massive game at home to Coventry next Saturday and I need to spend the next few days building the players' confidence.

"We need to be better going forward when we play at home, but you also need a solid base and I feel we have given ourselves that with this result. Now we have to build on it.

"A draw at Middlesbrough will be a great result if we follow it up with a win against Coventry. We're not there yet, but we'll keep working hard."

Johnson and his staff will today assess the fitness of midfielder Cole Skuse, who was replaced by Marvin Elliott at half-time after suffering a stomach injury.