Bristol City welcome Fulham to Ashton Gate on Saturday lunchtime in the third round of the FA Cup, for what is set to be the first of two ties between the pair in seven days. 

Though Marco Silva's side are 12 places and 15 points above the Robins in the league table, it's the hosts that head into tomorrow's game in the better form.

City got back to winning ways against Millwall last weekend and deserved to take something against QPR in their final game of 2021, meaning there appears newfound positivity surrounding the club.

Fulham, meanwhile, have now gone five games without a win and haven't played since the 20th of December.

That will likely mean Silva names a strong XI in Bs3 but Nigel Pearson's team showed in September they were capable of getting a result against the Cottagers.

With a place in the FA Cup fourth round on the line, we've outlined the startling lineup we're expecting to see on Saturday...

Max O'Leary has been City's first choice goalkeeper in recent weeks but Pearson may look to give Dan Bentley another chance to impress in tomorrow's clash.

Rob Atkinson is another player that appears to have fallen out of favour a little but after the manager discussed his situation publicly in the pre-match press conference, you wonder whether we could see him back in the XI against Fulham.

Wholesale changes aren't expected, which may mean we see Tomas Kalas, Zak Vyner, and Cam Pring reprise their roles in the back four.

Matty James is one of the first names on the City teamsheet right now while Han-Noah Massengo will surely start alongside him in midfield after dazzling from the bench against Millwall.

Amid links with a move away from Ashton Gate, Pearson hinted that Kasey Palmer could return to the side and it would make sense for 18-year-old Alex Scott to be the player given a rest.

In Andi Weimann, the Robins have one of the Championship's in-form forwards and we can expect to see him involved again after his hattrick last weekend.

Starting Callum O'Dowda and Antoine Semenyo looks likely to give City the best chance of making it to the fourth round, though it would not be a surprise to see either Nahki Wells or Chris Martin given a chance.