Bottom of the npower Championship table and set for three mighty tough matches in the next week, these are difficult times for Bristol City.

Ahead of meetings with promotion candidates Cardiff City, Reading and Queens Park Rangers, however, any hint of doom and gloom is swept aside by Manager Keith Millen as he looks to turn around the club's fortunes following the shock departure of his predecessor Steve Coppell just two matches into the current campaign.

Millen told football-league.co.uk: "The week we've got coming up can be a blessing rather than a curse. It's going to be tough, of course, but there are no easy games in the Championship so in that sense it doesn't worry me who we've got.

"We start at Cardiff and as a local derby we'll really be up for that one. The passion and desire that the fans demand will be there and we'll be looking for a result that can start us moving up the table.

"We're in a bad position at the moment, but there's a good atmosphere among the players, the work ethic is excellent and there's certainly quality in the squad."

Millen knows the squad and the club well having been at Ashton Gate since arriving as a player in 1999. He has had a couple of stints in charge as caretaker boss, most recently at the tail end of last season after Gary Johnson left the club.

The campaign was finished with a flourish as the Robins took 18 points from nine games under 43-year-old Millen - if that points per game ratio had been achieved over the whole season a top three place would have been comfortably achieved.

Two games from end of the season Coppell was appointed Manager but left it to the caretaker to see the campaign out. And that, feels Millen, was a mistake. "Steve should have taken over straight away," he said. "That would have given him the best possible opportunity to assess players as he looked towards this season.

"That didn't happen, and the matter was made worse when we had an unbelievable amount of injuries in pre-season. Everyone had been excited about Steve's arrival and rightly so, but when he walked out it was difficult - it affected the players and we had to pick up the pieces with a squad I'd inherited from two different Managers."

The highest profile of the players signed by Coppell was veteran England goalkeeper David James, who joined City after spending his career in the Premier League with clubs such as Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Portsmouth.

The hugely experienced 40-year-old keeper cited Coppell as a major reason for joining the club but, says Millen, James is now playing an important role as the Robins look to find a way out of their current predicament.

"I think it was quite a shock to David's system when he started playing for us," said Millen, "but he's worked really hard and he's very much a part of the squad. He's a leader and that's what we need - he's vocal and outspoken at times, but always in the right way and I encourage him to have his say.

"I'm comfortable in what I want at the club, the way things should work on the playing side and the way I want the team to play. And with the quality we've got here, I'm more than confident that we can push up the table."

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