By Paul Green
NEIL Harris admits this weekend’s Championship fixture at Bristol City takes priority over tomorrow’s League Cup tie against Portsmouth.
The Lions travel to the south coast on Tuesday evening for their second game of three in the space of seven days having commenced the campaign with a 3-2 home defeat to Watford.
Injuries and the continued suspension of Japhet Tanganga means Harris doesn’t have much room for manoeuvre in terms of who he can and can’t leave out at Fratton Park, with Ryan Leonard also coming off with a head injury at the weekend.
But despite the current shortage of personnel at his disposal, the Den manager will still look to tinker the starting XI with one eye firmly on the upcoming league trip to Ashton Gate.
Harris said: “The most important game is next Saturday at Bristol, so yes we will need to make changes.
“Obviously we are very limited in our changes because we are very limited in our squad.
“There is huge frustration for everybody at the moment.
“We will have to assess at Calmont Road who is fit, who is not and certainly someone like Ryan Leonard to see where he is at.
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“There are some experienced and ageing players that will struggle to play again on Tuesday.
“That’s the nature of the beast and I understand that, but obviously we are very limited in our options. It is important that we don’t lose any more players to injury but also making sure we are competitive and do the competition justice and the travelling fans on Tuesday.
“It won’t just be eleven changes like most teams will make. Obviously we are not in that position.
“We will probably make less changes than any other football club in the country,” but that’s where we are at the moment.”
Harris dropped a big hint one man likely to feature in the starting line-up at Pompey is Aidomo Emakhu after an impressive by the winger as a substitute against Watford.
“I thought he done well when he came on,” said the manager
“His best football in a Millwall shirt has been impacting from the bench at a young age.
“I thought he came on and made a really good impact.
“Yes, certainly Aidomo is one that comes into the thinking for Tuesday night.”
