Bristol City midfielder Lee Johnson will not be returning to Derby County on loan.

During January, Johnson played seven games for the Pride Park outfit, who were keen to secure his services until the end of the season.

However, City wanted to ensure they would have a 24-hour recall clause and so would only let Derby extend the deal into a second month.

Manager Gary Johnson explained: "Derby didn't want to take Lee for another month and run the risk of having him recalled. We have a number of games coming up in very quick succession and don't want to loan Lee out at Derby for the rest of the campaign, when we might need him."

Johnson junior will be part of the City squad on Saturday, when Coventry visit Ashton Gate.

Meanwhile, the manager has spoken of his pleasure at seeing goalkeeper Dean Gerken keep a clean sheet at Middlesbrough, following the 6-0 defeat to Cardiff.

Some City fans had called for Gerken to be dropped and replaced by Adriano Basso. But Johnson kept faith with the 24-year-old at the Riverside.

When asked about his decision, Johnson said: "Some fans will give me stick, some will give everybody stick.

"I have kept faith with him (Gerken) because he is a good keeper and he is still relatively young for a goalkeeper.

"I thought he was nice and solid – there was one poor kick but everything else was good and his talking was solid. He made the back four feel a bit more comfortable."

Johnson admitted that Gerken's performance against Cardiff was not blame-free. He added: "He blamed himself for a couple he might have got on another day, although one went through someone's legs."

Johnson made just one change for the trip to Middlesbrough, with centre-back Lewin Nyatanga coming in for right-winger Danny Haynes as he switched from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2.

The lack of changes surprised many, but Johnson was rewarded with a hard-fought point.

He added: "You can't change your team week in and week out and expect to get any sort of consistency. I had to see whether this group could recover and they did.

"In adversity, our club always comes out strong, and in adversity you get to know the ones who support you through thick and thin.

"If you fall off the horse, as they say, you have to get back on it.

"I know them (the players) very well and I know they can react in situations like this because some of them have been with me for a little while now, and I know they can respond.

"We got beat 6-0 to Ipswich (two years ago) and we played Ipswich two weeks later and beat them and went on to get to the play-off final. We know there is the odd blip in us every now and then.

"The problem is that because we got to the play-off final in our first season (in the Championship) the ambition of everybody at the club is a bit higher.

"We all want to do it, but being where we are in the Championship at this moment in time is not bad, because we are still within a couple of wins on the trot of the play-offs."

Johnson admitted he used the speculation surrounding winger Adam Johnson to motivate his team.

The draw proved to be the England Under-21 international's final game for Boro before his deadline day move to Manchester City.

"I wound our boys up to make sure we kept him quiet," he said. "I didn't want to see why he was worth £9 million. Our full-backs did really well."