Luke McNally was the final addition to Liam Manning's squad in what turned out to be a very busy summer transfer window for Bristol City last year.

The 25-year-old is already a seasoned Championship defender and while he was never quite able to force his way into the Burnley side on a regular basis, he has enjoyed good loan spells at both Coventry City and Stoke City, even reaching the play-off final with the Sky Blues under Mark Robins.

However, when the Robins made their interest known, the Irishman's mind was already made up. Although it took Scott Parker's side a bit longer to sanction McNally's exit, some familiar faces from years gone by at Ashton Gate had sold the centre-back on moving to the West Country.

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"There was early talk of coming here and things just took a while, probably more on the Burnley side of it," McNally explained. "Thankfully it got done. There's always been a little bit of interest here at Bristol but obviously, I'm really happy to be here.

"They all [Scott Twine and Josh Brownhill] just spoke glowingly of it. Obviously, the gaffer was at Oxford so I knew a lot of players who had him. Even Frankie Fielding was at Stoke with me last year and he always spoke very highly of Bristol and how he enjoyed living here so I didn't really need to review it too much. As I said, it's something in your gut that has a good feeling about it and I definitely had it here."

So far, McNally's gut feeling has proven to be reliable. After a slightly slow start in City colours, the centre-back has gone from strength to strength under Manning and helped the Robins climb to eighth in the Championship table following a good festive period which saw them claim 10 out of a possible 12 points.

Burnley had a massively over-inflated first-team squad when Parker arrived at Turf Moor which limited how much football the players on the fringes of the team could play. While McNally believes that put him on the back foot when he first made the move to Ashton Gate, he believes the coaching set-up at the High Performance Centre has helped him get back to his best quickly.

"I would say that," the centre-back replied when asked if it took him time to get up to speed in City colours. "I probably didn't get a lot of minutes in pre-season back at Burnley and you kind of get chucked in when the lads are five games in and it's your first one. It's a bit of a weird feeling, but thankfully as the season's gone on, I've slotted in better.

"It's probably just the little reminders and probably on the training pitch. He has a lot more input than other coaches, he gives good little snippets all the time so it's constantly learning off of that as well as [Chris] Hoggy and the other coaches. I feel like I'm getting stronger every day and hopefully that continues."

The next test for Bristol City sees them welcome Premier League opposition in Wolverhampton Wanderers and Vitor Pereira to Ashton Gate in the third round of the FA Cup this Saturday. The Black Country club have struggled in the top flight this term and currently sit level on points with Ipswich Town who occupy the final spot in the relegation zone.

Having grown up in Ireland, the FA Cup doesn't quite hold the special place in McNally's heart that it does for some of his English teammates. As a boyhood Manchester United fan, the 25-year-old will have no doubt enjoyed watching the Red Devils lift the trophy at Wembley in his childhood, but his memories of the competition aren't quite as positive.

"I have a bad one," the defender grimaced when asked for his career highlight in the competition. "I was 3-1 up against Bristol Rovers and lost 4-3 so that was a really bad one. I don't know if I have a highlight from many FA Cup runs that I've had.

"Obviously City did really well last year with West Ham and Nottingham Forest so I will be hoping for one of my first good ones."

Although he may not have much experience in England's oldest cup competition, the former Stoke City loanee has played in English football's most expensive game. Whilst on loan at Coventry in the 2022/23 campaign, McNally played all 120 minutes of the play-off final as Robins' Sky Blues missed out on promotion to the Premier League at the hands of Luton Town and Rob Edwards.

On that day, it was Fankaty Dabo's penalty miss that cost Coventry. The substitute couldn't hit the target with his decisive spot-kick and McNally was forced to watch on from the halfway line as the Hatters players celebrated reaching the Premier League.

With replays now removed from the FA Cup this season, games will instead be decided by extra time and penalties. Of course, Bristol City will be keen to get the job done within 90 minutes after such a busy festive schedule, but the 25-year-old is keen to do what he didn't at Wembley.

"I'd like to [take a penalty]," McNally admitted. "I didn't take one in the play-off final and I kind of live with that little bit of regret. It's probably not the same magnitude this weekend, but I would like to take one for sure.

"We're going to have a good crowd there on Saturday and it's a chance to show that you can compete at that level. That's everyone's dream as a kid to play in the Premier League or play for your country. Whatever it is, to compete at that level is everyone's aspiration and it's a good chance for us to show that we can do that."

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