Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson makes big claim ahead of Hull City reunion

Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson believes Hull City will be coming up against one of the Championship's most potent strike forces when the pair meet at Ashton Gate on Saturday in what will be the Tigers' penultimate fixture of their first season back in the second-tier. The two teams are separated by just two points at the bottom end of the table, and victory for the Tigers in the West Country would see them leapfrog the Robins into 17th place with just one game of the campaign left.

Andreas Weimann notched his 20th goal of a terrific season when he scored at former club Derby County in a 3-1 win, while Chris Martin has 10 and Antoine Semenyo has seven. The prolific trio have plundered 37 goals between them and an impressive 24 assists, but it's at the other end where Pearson's side have struggled.

In their 44 games so far, the Robins have shipped 75 times which is the third-worst defensive record in the league behind Reading (85) and Peterborough (84) - 27 less than City's 48, and the attacking exploits of their in-form trio has not only caught the eye of Pearson, but been hugely important.

"We've needed them to score." said Pearson ahead of the game against his old club. "Win, lose or draw, play well, play poorly or be bang average in the middle, we've had a strike force - and bearing in mind we've got Nahki Wells, Tommy (Conway) and Belly (Sam Bell) behind that - we've got players who look like scoring. I remember in my early time here last season there were ironic - and that's not really the word - quite sarcastic celebrations of us winning a corner or having a shot in a game, so we've had a bit of a trade-off in terms of losing our solidity at times but we've got a strike force that I think is as good as anything in