Johnson was forced to lead the Red Devils in their Egyptian Premier League game against Ghazl El-Mahalla due to Pitso Mosimane contracting COVID-19.
Despite their unconvincing performance, the defending champions were still able to secure the win thanks to a Mohamed Sherif brace.
The 62-year-old said that, despite his absence, Mosimane played a big role in helping them secure the win.
“We work as a team. Mosimane is always with us with his tactics through the team meetings. He is always with us even if he’s not physically present,” said Johnson.
“Mosimane definitely has his impact through his tactical aspects.
“We didn’t perform as well as we hoped in the first-half. El-Mahalla is an ambitious team and they threatened us with the counter-attacks and they almost scored.
“We didn’t move the ball as well as we hoped. In the second half, we scored 3 goals in a great way, but still the performance wasn’t as we hoped.
“El-Sulya suffered an injury last Wednesday, he then recovered and during the warm-up he felt pain once again.
“Therefore, we preferred to rest Al-him as a preventive measure,” he concluded.
This victory has now lifted Al Ahly to the top of the Egyptian Premier League with six points after two games played.
Their next league game will be against arch-rivals Zamalek in the Cairo derby on Monday, December 28th.