"Last year when we lost down here, we were up in the last minutes of the game, kicked it out of defence and there was a dubious decision for a penalty, which they advanced another five metres and kicked a goal from inside their own half. So it was hardly a 'monkey off our backs' - we haven't lost a league game here since 1992," said the Tigers and England captain.

"But since we've got to the cup final in 1997 we've lost to Saracens, London Irish and Quins twice here, and Richmond. It's good to be in the semi-final of the cup, as it is not a competition that a lot of guys have ever been in the final off, and whoever we get in the semis it's going to be another big game."

Ill-discipline almost cost the Tigers dear, with one score negated because of a number of punches being thrown off the ball at a ruck, but one score going unpunished when Ben Kay took a swing at Alex Codling just before the first try.

"I wasn't aware of that one," said Johnson, "But fair play to Chris White, we said to him it's nothing to do with the try we scored, and he said 'no it was foul play and we will go back for it,' which is the rules I guess, so fair enough."

"Frank (Tournaire) said he was provoked or whatever, and he was the one who got caught. It was disappointing as it would have made it 20-6 just before half-time, and they scored a penalty and it was 13-9 instead."

"So it had a big effect on the game. You've got to hope in won't happen, but he's not going to change his mind and you've just got to refocus and get on with it."

"There was a couple of silly penalties. We had them under their sticks in a scrum and we got penalised for saying something, I don't know what."

"At 16-12 you are always saying something and we got pulled up. There was a few penalties in the second half I thought we were a bit unlucky to get penalised for, but the referee makes a decision and it kept us from getting any momentum and keeping the pressure on them."

"We get down there and knocked-on or given a penalty away and it was back to midfield, so it's just a bit frustrating and the guys were a bit tetchy about it and we held on and got there in the end."

With Leicester almost restored to full strength, Saturday's win keeps their season alive on all three fronts, and Johnson is hopeful for a big finish to the season from his side.

"The way we've been going in the league, that's a game today, that if they had scored a try midway through the second half and got away from us, we would have lost. We've been leaking tries in the second half and it's cost us, but we defended a little bit better today, kept them out and got the win."

"We are happy with the win, but when we look at the video in the week there will be a lot of glaring things that we will see that we didn't do well. Lots of missed chances, not just the ill-discipline that we didn't score, but the missed chances and the opportunities," continued Johnson.

"We are in good position in both the cups, but it is just in the league, where we have been clear at this stage in the last two or three years, and we're in fourth place now. If we can get a good few wins under our belt we can get into the top three and have a good chance to get to the Zurich Championship final."