By Tony Leighton

Four years after reaching the FA Cup final and challenging for promotion to the Premiership, Millwall are preparing to make a third successive attempt at reclaiming their place in the Championship.

But pre-season talk of promotion is not on The New Den's agenda, says experienced full back Marcus Bignot who was manager Kenny Jackett's first signing (initially on loan) when Jackett took over last November with the Lions in the League 1 relegation zone.

They eventually finished 17th in the table, having 12 months earlier ended their first campaign following relegation in 10th place. Both seasons, however, were blighted by poor opening spells which left them playing catch-up.

Former Queens Park Rangers, Bristol Rovers and Crewe defender Bignot, who joined Millwall from QPR, says: "Chatting to the lads who've been here for a while, it seems that in the last two pre-seasons there was a lot of talk about promotion.

"That maybe led to some people losing a bit of focus and might have been part of the reason they started so badly - in both seasons they only won one of their first 10 games and that's very difficult to get over if you want to make a real challenge at the top.

"So this year there's been no talk of promotion, we're just concentrating on working really hard in pre-season and then we'll be working every bit as hard to get the season off to a good start that we can build on."

Millwall will not be among the promotion favourites, which will not worry anyone at The New Den, but Bignot admits that getting past the two teams who are the hot favourites - Leeds United and relegated Leicester City - will be a tough task.

"At this point you'd have to look at Leeds and Leicester for the automatic promotion places," says 33 year-old Bignot. "They'll have much bigger budgets than a club like ours, which straight away gives them an advantage, but the pressure will also be on them.

"They're big clubs who should be playing in a higher division, but then I'd say the same about Millwall. There are big ambitions here and we've got passionate fans, but we've under-achieved in the last few seasons.

"We pulled ourselves out of relegation danger last season, but none of the seasoned professionals were celebrating because we know a club of Millwall's size shouldn't be near the bottom of League 1.

"So we're desperate to put things right this season. People outside the club might not be expecting much of us, but there's always a surprise package and that could be us - but we have to get the start we want to give ourselves a solid base."