Lee Johnson wants his Bristol City players to become heroes

Bristol City boss Lee Johnson admits victory over Manchester City would be one of the biggest results in the club’s history.

The Robins host the Premier League leaders in their Carabao Cup semi-final on Tuesday trailing 2-1 from the first leg earlier this month.

Bristol City knocked Manchester United out in the quarter-final at Ashton Gate and are just a game from next month’s final at Wembley.

Johnson’s side are also chasing promotion to the Premier League but he conceded beating Pep Guardiola’s superstars would be huge.

“For me, and the club, the Premier League is the dream,” he said.

“But saying that as far as the team is concerned, for this team to beat Man City and the players they have got, it would rank as one of the best results in the club’s history.

“They’ll go down in folklore. Some have already from the Manchester United game. We’re going to enjoy it.

“We’ll keep going, we don’t want to be brave losers. We want to compete and compete to win. The only way we will fulfil our ambitions is to get the results on the pitch.

“This is where the heroes are born.”

The Robins are fifth in the Sky Bet Championship but are winless in their last six matches, including the last-gasp defeat at the Etihad.

Bobby Reid’s penalty was cancelled out by Kevin De Bruyne before Sergio Aguero struck in stoppage time.

They ended a five-game losing run with a 0-0 draw at Derby on Friday that left them five points behind the top two.

Jamie Paterson echoed Johnson’s thoughts and now has a taste to play City and other top-flight clubs on a regular basis with the Robins also beating Watford, Stoke and Crystal Palace in their run to the last four.

“Everyone wants to get promotion, that’s the number one aim. If you can do both that’s unbelievable,” said the six-goal forward.

“It’ll be a season you’ll never forget. You don’t want to play these games as a one-off, you want them every week.

“It’s the semi-final of the cup so it will feel different to a league game but our focus is on the league and to try to get promotion.

“It’s a good distraction but it’s the semi-final of the cup – you might not get the opportunity again so you’ve got to give it your best shot.”