Otago beat Canterbury in Rangiora by six wickets yesterday in its Plunket Shield match, after skittling the home side for a measly 61 runs in just over 28 overs yesterday.
At the start of the final day's play yesterday, Otago was more than 100 runs behind Canterbury in its first innings and a draw looked on the cards.
There were two ways Otago could have approached it, Johnson said.
"We could have pushed on and got a few more runs and got three or four bonus points. But you are not going to make any impact in this competition if you get a whole lot of draws."
Otago took five balls at the start of the day to get to 300 and take another batting point. It then quickly declared and eyed up the Canterbury batsmen, despite being 120 runs behind.
Otago's opening bowlers, Neil Wagner and Steve Finn, took aim and within 10 overs had four Canterbury batsmen back in the pavilion.
Englishman Finn got rid of the dangerous Rob Nichol and then bowled home skipper Peter Fulton, leaving Canterbury in a hole from which it never emerged.
Shannon Stewart was the only batsman to stand tall. He got to 29, two more runs than the other Canterbury batsman combined.
Stewart was sixth out with the score one short of 50 and the tail did not wag, as Wagner secured his ninth five-wicket bag of his first-class career.
There had been rain at the ground on Wednesday night but Johnson said the pitch was not markedly different.
The Canterbury effort, which was still well above the lowest effort against its neighbour - 25 in 1866-67 - left Otago with the target of scoring 182 off a minimum of 75 overs and in the end it did it easily.
There was a slight speed wobble when Michael Bracewell went at 87 and Sam Wells followed just two balls later.
But Nathan McCullum strode to the wicket and kept the scoreboard ticking over, eventually getting to the total, combined with Neil Broom, with more than 25 overs to spare.
McCullum finished on 63, at just over a run a ball, while Broom finished on 34 as the duo pulled up five runs short of a century stand.
"It wasn't an easy target and we made a reasonable start, and then had a couple of worries. But we came out after tea and batted without fear and that got us home."
Otago sits second on the table behind Auckland on the table after taking 16 points from the match - 12 for the win and an additional four under the Plunket Shield's new bonus-point system, while Canterbury registered four.
Johnson said it was a great start and with Brendon McCullum indicating he was keen to play for Otago next week, against Central Districts at Lincoln, the team should go into the game with confidence.
Paceman James McMillan suffered a slight strain to his side and would be checked today.
Meanwhile, the rain-affected match between Central and Wellington petered out to a draw in Napier yesterday afternoon.
Only a further 32.4 overs were played yesterday as Central reached an overall lead of 94 before the match was called off, leaving captain Jamie How stranded on 187, three runs short of his highest first-class score.
