Alex Neil and Millwall are set to make the trip to Ashton Gate this weekend to face Gerhard Struber’s Bristol City in the ChampionshipMillwall, under the management of Alex Neil, currently sit third in the Championship(Image: Photo by James Fearn/Getty Images)

Millwall boss Alex Neil has admitted that he really likes the way Bristol City have played so far this season, with the Lions head coach expecting a “tough game” when he and his side travel to Ashton Gate to face the “dynamic” Robins this weekend.

City welcome the Lions to the West Country on Saturday afternoon as they look to register back-to-back Championship wins for the first time since October. The Reds have enjoyed a rare full week on the training pitch, having beaten Portsmouth 1-0 at Fratton Park last time out.

While Gerhard Struber’s side had to defend well to claim all three points on the south coast, it took some late fireworks for Millwall to beat Southampton last weekend. Tristan Crama found the back of the net in the 97th minute to fire the Lions to a 3-2 win and send them up into third in the table.

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Ahead of Saturday afternoon’s meeting between the two sides, City sit sixth in England’s second tier, two points and three places adrift of Neil’s side. On paper, this weekend’s clash is set up to be an exciting contest, and it is one the Millwall boss certainly isn’t taking lightly.

“Tough game,” the Lions boss told Southwark News when asked what he was expecting to be waiting for him at Ashton Gate. “A lot of energy. I really like Bristol City; I like the way they play.

“I’ve watched a lot of their games this season. They’re dynamic and have good guys at the top end of the pitch who can score a goal. I feel the pitch at their ground is massive as well, so it’s just really, really open.

“But I feel in the form that we are in at the moment, if we can try and take that into the game Saturday, then, yeah, it’ll be a match.”

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Having come close to creeping into the top six with a good run of form towards the back end of last season, Millwall have managed to set the pace in the battle for the play-off places over the course of the first 18 games of the current campaign.

After an impressive start, the Lions entered the November international break on a run of three matches without a win, including a heavy 4-0 defeat away to Birmingham City. That barren spell was then stretched to four games with a 3-1 loss at Fratton Park, but back-to-back wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton have lifted spirits ahead of the trip to Ashton Gate.

Notably, Neil’s side are the only team in the current top 11 to boast a negative goal difference, having scored 22 and conceded 25 goals this term – figures that are respectively the lowest and highest of the sides in the current top six.

While that may be enough for some Robins supporters to fancy their chances against Millwall, like his Lions counterpart, Struber is expecting a challenging afternoon in BS3.

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“They’re a very powerful team, a very physical team,” the Robins head coach explained in his pre-match press conference. “In more phases of the game, they have power – this is especially [in] set-plays.

“From a physical standpoint, [they’re] a really big team, a really powerful team in this direction. But also, in the wide areas, right and left, powerful wingers, dribbling monsters, cross-ball monsters, so a really good team. I would say that the story of Millwall is always very direct, but also, I would say, they’re growing in possession, so it’s not a coincidence that they are in the table, in the play-off places.

“I think the energy that they have together and also how they play football is on a really good level. It’s a top opponent that we have on Saturday, and for us, it’s important to beat them with our principles, and I have a big belief and such big trust in my boys [that] we can deal with this power, and of course, we can beat them.

“But we have to come on our best level on this day. Then, it’s possible we win against a team like that.”

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