Millwall boss Alex Neil makes Leeds United declaration before FA Cup clash with Elland Road atmosphere view
Alex Neil will take his Millwall side to Elland Road to face Leeds in the FA Cup fourth round.
Millwall boss Alex Neil has made a Leeds United admission ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup clash but with a confident Lions message and Elland Road atmosphere view.
Thirteen places and 26 points separate the two sides in the Championship table which is led clearly by Daniel Farke’s Whites who Neil admits must be seen as favourites for Saturday lunchtime’s fourth round cup clash at Elland Road.
Neil, though, says United’s standing will not put his 14th-placed side off their game plan, the Lions boss declaring that back to back recent away wins at Portsmouth and Luton Town have added confidence ahead of the trip to West Yorkshire.
Neil, who was appointed Millwall boss at the end of December, has also issued total confidence in his side’s ability to handle the Elland Road atmosphere.
“I don’t look at any team that I could put out that wouldn’t be able to handle that atmosphere,” said Neil, as quoted by Southwark News.
“I don’t see any lack of bottle or lack of aggression or lack of commitment for any of the players that I would put in the team at the moment so I’m quite comfortable regardless of who we play. I don’t have any reservations about any of the players.
“You would say that Leeds are certainly favourites being top of the Championship and being at home, but we’ll go about our work and we’ll go about the game the way we would do irrespective of who the opponent is and what the competition is. We want to go and try and get a result from the game.”
Reflecting on the boost of the recent back to back away wins, Neil declared: “It was quite strange in the fact that until we won those couple of games, I wasn’t really aware of how poor our away form had actually been over the season.
“We’d only won one game up until that point away from home. To have only won one game away from home and then to go on and win two, back to back on the bounce, speaks volumes of the confidence in the mood where at the moment.
“It is fair to say that we are going to Leeds with more confidence than we would have done before we won those two games, because I think it takes a certain type of mentality, a certain type of team, to understand what is required away from home, and the ability to deliver it.”