Millwall boss Alex Neil says he hates the “little old Millwall” underdog tagline his team have in the Championship promotion race – as his team prepare to take on rivals Ipswich, live on Sky Sports.

Third host fourth in the Championship promotion race on Saturday in a game that could decide who takes the second automatic promotion spot behind leaders Coventry.

Millwall are competing against an Ipswich side who have invested a lot of money into their squad and played in the Premier League last season, but Neil says that is not a reason to belittle his team.

“If you’re purely comparing us with Ipswich, then naturally they’ve got the riches of the Premier League, but I don’t like the narrative around us being little old Millwall punching above their weight and all that c***,” Neil said.

“It’s 11 guys on a pitch. They may be earning a bit more money than we are, but it doesn’t stop the fact that we can produce on the day and win the game.

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“We back each other in terms of performing on the day against any team, whether it be Ipswich or not. They’ve got talented players. We’ve got talented players.

“Across the season so far, there’s not been a huge amount between both teams. Now, that might not be the case on the day. We might go there and play great and win. They might go there and play great and win. That’s not going to change my view on that.

“For me, I’ve never used ‘little old Millwall’. I’d never say that to my players because it demeans what we are and what we’re trying to do. As far as I’m concerned, we’re as competitive as anybody. We work within the resources that we’ve got.

“I just don’t like the narrative of playing yourself down as an underdog. ‘If we do it, it’s going to be a miracle and we’re really lucky to be here’ and all that c***. That doesn’t wash with me.

“If you want to be there and you want to be competitive and you want to win, you’ve got to believe that you should be there and I believe we should be.”

Neil reacts to Surge red card being overturned

Millwall were on a four-game winning run in the Championship before last weekend’s 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn, which centred around a red card for Zak Sturge.

Five minutes after Millwall’s opener, Sturge was dismissed for a last-man foul, despite the ball moving away from goal and a covering defender in sight. Millwall appealed the sending off, and Sturge is now available to play against Ipswich after the red card was rescinded.

That incident, though, cost Millwall three points as Blackburn scored twice in the final 10 minutes to turn the game on its head. A Millwall win would have taken them second in the Championship table – and ahead of Ipswich going into this crucial game.

Asked if he was confident in the red card being overturned, Neil said: “I don’t think you could ever be certain in these type of scenarios because I think it needs to be a clear and obvious error for it to get overturned. So from my perspective, I thought it was.

“I try to be impartial for how difficult that is in those type of situations, but looking at it, I thought it was a clear mistake by the referee. I mean, there’s very few times since I’ve been at Millwall that I’ve voiced my displeasure in terms of a decision going against us.

“Obviously, I was quite vocal after the game about that one, because I thought it was an injustice and I thought it swayed the game in their favour. I spoke to the referee afterwards as well, and I told him exactly my thoughts on the situation.

“We had a good discussion about it, and I did say to him, I think in hindsight, when he looked at it back, that he would agree that it was the wrong choice. The fact that it’s been overturned, I think vindicates and justifies our feeling on the day.

“It doesn’t, unfortunately, give us any points back that I think we would have got otherwise. So that’s obviously the frustrating part. But like anything, when you make a mistake, then the least you can do is obviously try and rectify it afterwards.

“I’m pleased that we got the decision. Zac’s now available, which is good. But yeah, it just probably leaves a little bit of a sour taste in the fact that I feel as if we’ve lost some points that otherwise we wouldn’t have.”

Are Millwall Premier League ready?

Comparing his team to Ipswich’s riches, Neil said Millwall have come “leaps and bounds” as a club over the years – and he says the Championship club have made huge strides both on and off the pitch.

“I could go over loads of things,” he said. “Our recruitment over the last two years has been excellent, hence the reason why the squad’s in such a good place. The work done at the Den in terms of refurbishing all the suites and all the gathering areas for where the fans come and make it a better place.

“We’re selling out on a weekly basis at the moment at home, so our attendances are as high as they’ve ever been. We’ve got guys on the team that I think are worth a lot of money and we’ve got other teams covering them.

“Our style of play has improved dramatically. We’ve won more games this year than we’ve won in the Championship since we’ve been back in it. We’ve got the best clean sheet record in the league. There’s loads and loads of bits that I could keep flinging at you in terms of the bits that I feel have come on a long way in such a short space of time.

“Some of them are football related and some of them are not so football related as in they’re on the pitch. The investment from Jimmy [Millwall chairman James Berylson] as well, albeit that we’ve made sales, we’ve also reinvested and we’ve done that really smartly and cleverly. We’ve moved us along quite significantly this year.”

Asked if his team are Premier League ready, Neil said: “I wouldn’t go that far. There’s always work to be done. Although there’s a lot of things to like, we’ve still got a lot of things we need to improve.”