Millwall boss Alex Neil confident his squad can handle hostile Leeds atmosphere
BY MITCHELL HALL
Millwall boss Alex Neil has looked forward to his side’s visit to Elland Road for Saturday’s FA Cup Fourth round clash against Leeds, stating his confidence that any players who are brought into the side are ready to handle the occasion.
Millwall breezed past Dagenham and Redbridge at the Den in the last round, but will face more robust opposition in an away trip to top-of-the-Championship Leeds.
“I’m not going to make loads of changes,” said Neil. “Changes will happen naturally for us in the fact that we’ve got Tristan Crama who is cup tied, we’ve got Aaron Connolly who is cup tied, so as far as that goes there will be changes that are forced upon us.
“There will be one or two changes that we will make as well due to the schedule that we have just come off the back of, and more importantly the schedule that is upcoming.
“This game is a game we want to go and try to get a result in, this is an important game for us, but I’m not going to lie, if you said to me ‘what’s your bread and butter and what would you rather sacrifice’, I would much rather win games in the league. I want to try and finish as high up the league as we can, albeit, we’re certainly not taking this game lightly.”
Neil was dismissive of concerns that his squad, and especially the younger players in the likes of Ra’ess Bangura-Williams who have only recently broken through to men’s football, might be intimidated by the hostile atmosphere at Elland Road.
“I don’t look at any team that I could put out that wouldn’t be able to handle that atmosphere,” said Neil. “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.
“You only get experience through playing, so you can’t be a team that wants to create more assets and give more opportunities to younger players and then be fearful of playing them in big games, they’re never going to learn otherwise.
Neil cited his team’s improved away form of late as having given the side a boost ahead of the trip North.
“Before those couple of games I wasn’t really aware of how incredibly poor our away form had actually been over the season,” he said. “I think we had only won one game up until that point away from home.
“To only have 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 and the mood we are in 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.”
PICTURE: BRIAN TONKS