BRISTOL City boss Keith Millen has warned some of his players that they have little chance of facing Ipswich Town on the opening day of the Championship – after just three pre-season friendlies.

A stark contrast to the buoyancy surrounding the Blues this summer, City have lost to lower league Charlton Athletic and then scraped a 3-2 win against a makeshift Plymouth Argyle side.

And they reached a new low on Saturday when they lost 2-0 to League Two Torquay United.

Although missing ex-Town striker Jon Stead, and fellow forwards Nicky Maynard and Brett Pitman, Millen is clearly not a happy man with less than three weeks to go before the big kick off.

The City manager said: “I’ve kept everyone happy up until now, but some of the lads have probably played themselves out of contention for the starting 11 for the Ipswich game.

“They have a lot of work to do if they want to be selected. It’s up to those players to get better and give me a selection headache because, at the moment, I don’t have too many of those.”

What made it worse for Millen was that his City side barely created a chance against Torquay while being indebted to former England keeper David James for keeping the score down.