"Naturally I want to talk about the football but it's a very passionate day for non-footballing reasons," said Johnson. "What I can say is both Clubs have acquitted themselves fantastically well.
"The players gave it a go on the pitch. The supporters with their passion you could see and all the lads making the walk - not only from Barnsley but from Lincoln as well which is unbelievable.
"Yorkshire has come together today and that's nice because, of course, it was a horrendous tragedy."
Jon Stead's goal proved to be the difference and the Reds did enjoy some decent passages of play and chances in return but couldn't find a breakthrough.
"I'm looking for positives because we're at that stage of the season where, of course, we're being experimental," added Johnson. "There were some positives. Mason Holgate looked like a man in a good environment with a big club and lot of fans. They turned on him and he dealt with that nicely so that was good.
"We tried to play football on a difficult pitch and got caught unstuck on five or six occasions in the first half. I didn't mind that because we were trying to play. The criticism I'd have is that we played back too much. There were a couple of individuals who were passing back rather than forwards.
"We tried to give George Maris time on the pitch. He did okay but not quite enough as he's coming on to try and make an impression. Whether you're 18, 27 or 37 you have to come on an make an impression.
"We want to win games. We could have won the game, we weren't matter. The lads kept going and it wasn't played like a testimonial."
