CITY and Bournemouth's similar ambitions will make for a competitive encounter when the two sides meet, says Alex Neil.

Neil's Canaries travel to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday looking to pick up three points after Wednesday's 3-1 Barclays Premier League loss at Stoke City.

They lead Bournemouth by two points in the division after the Cherries also suffered midweek defeat at the hands of West Ham United.

"It's a good game for us. It's going to be a tough match, I think both teams are in a similar situation where they need to pick up points," Neil told Norwich City TV.

"It's crucial because Wednesday's game was certainly a fixture that we looked at and thought we could pick points up. We didn't play poorly. We played well in vast spells of the game, but it's about getting points basically.

"The game was going as well as we would have liked at the start of it, but unfortunately the sending off changed the game and made it much more difficult for us.

"It shifts the importance onto this game even more now."

Neil's team won the reverse fixture at Carrow Road back in September as Wes Hoolahan shone in a 3-1 victory, City's second top flight win of the campaign.

On the style he expects this weekend's opponents to adopt, he commented: "Bournemouth are a really high pressing team.

"They want to dominate possession and play on the front foot so it will be a tough match.

"We played really well against them at Carrow Road. Wes in particular was excellent, and it's going to take another performance like that to ensure the points."

BOURNEMOUTH v CITY: THE MANAGER'S PREVIEW

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