Millwall man in the stands as Crystal Palace take on Aston Villa

Millwall head coach Alex Neil will be present at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night to watch Crystal Palace take on Aston Villa in Premier League action ahead of this weekend's FA Cup fixtures.

The Lions make the short trip over to the Eagles on Saturday in one of the fifth round's tastiest-looking encounters. Millwall beat Dagenham & Redbridge in the fourth round of the competition with Crystal Palace getting the better of Doncaster Rovers.

Millwall are afforded the luxury of no midweek action but their south London rivals are involved in the latest round of Premier League fixtures. Oliver Glasner's 13th-placed top flight side host 8th-place Aston Villa in a 7:30 pm kick-off tonight at Selhurst Park.

Alex Neil to watch Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park

The South London Press has confirmed that Neil will be in attendance at that match to scout out his opposition ahead of the weekend. A win over Crystal Palace on Saturday would see Millwall into the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2019.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace last made it to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2022, going on to reach the semi-final that season. Neither London side has won the competition before.

Millwall head coach Neil told the South London Press: “Yeah I’m going to go and watch the game. That will give me an opportunity to go and look at them. We will watch three or four games before we play them anyway – we will be well-versed in what they do.

“The difficulty you always have in the competition is that people always make changes to the team. I’m anticipating they might make one or two. That will bring a bit of a challenge.”

Millwall ready for ‘local rivalry’ in FA Cup clash

Neil, who took over from Neil Harris at The Den at the end of December, is well aware of the importance of the FA Cup clash against the London opposition. He told NewsAtDen: “It’s an important game because it’s a local rivalry. It’s an important game because it’s an important game to our fans, which means it’s an important game to me.

“So the players will be fully aware of the importance of the match. They’ll be looking forward to it. It’s an opportunity for us to pit ourselves against a good Premier League side. There’s nothing not to like about the game. It’s a cracking game for us because it’s a one-off hit, we can go and attack it. There’s no league points at stake. It’s not an accumulation over a season, it’s just a one-off game. Let’s go attack the game and see where it goes.

“I don’t try and dial it down for the players. Like I said, I think it’s an important game for the fans. So I think the players need to be fully aware of that, which they will be. I think they need to play with emotion, but controlled emotion, if that makes sense.

“I think that tactically I’ll have a look at Palace. I’m going to watch them tonight against Aston Villa. By the time we play them, the lads will be well versed in what we’re up against. I think the difficulty we’ve always got with the cup is normally there are a few changes made so we are not in control of that, but we are in control of how we play and what we do. So we’ll be looking forward to the game, we’re in good form and we’ll go out with confidence.”

In other news, Alex Neil has issued a triple injury update ahead of the Crystal Palace clash after a ‘poor challenge’.