City came from a goal behind to beat the Baggies 2-1 at Ashton Gate with the managers son Lee scoring the all important second City goal.
"We needed a win over quality opposition to restore self-belief, and that's exactly what we got," Johnson said.
"Hopefully, this can be a really big result for us and we can start looking up the table again rather than over our shoulders.
"It was a tremendous team effort. I gave up celebrating Lee's goals when he was in under-nines football, and I'd rather concentrate on a terrific effort by all the players.
"We had a tough opening 20 minutes, but once Albion scored, I felt we raised our game and were quicker to the ball."