Gary Johnson claims there will be no animosity between he and Ipswich Town boss Roy Keane when the pair meet for the first time at Ashton Gate tomorrow.

Bristol City's manager clashed with the Irishman during the close season when he tried and failed to sign Lee Martin from Premier League giants Manchester United.

The young winger eventually opted to move to Portman Road instead, a fact revealed by Johnson in a media interview.

His revelation elicited a sharp response from Keane, who was trying to keep the deal under wraps, and the Irishman was clearly nettled, suggesting publicly that Johnson keep his nose out of other people's business.

"He didn't need to say what he said, because he had hold of the wrong end of the stick," said Johnson.

"We made an offer for Lee Martin with Sir Alex Ferguson's blessing and everyone knew that. But the lad had worked with Roy Keane at Old Trafford as a young lad, decided he wanted to join Ipswich and that was fair enough.

"I was asked whether Lee was coming here to Bristol City and I said 'no, he's going to Ipswich,' which was totally true.

"But we know Roy likes to chew wasps sometimes and he chose to respond in the manner he did.

"He came out and said it was none of my business when, in fact, it was my business at that time."

A brooding presence in the technical area, Keane will be the focus of media and crowd attention on the touchline at Ashton Gate tomorrow. But Johnson is hoping he and the former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland star can share a drink afterwards, no matter what the outcome.

He confirmed: "I'm sure we'll shake hands after the game and, hopefully, he'll agree to come to my office for a drink.

"I don't have any real problem with Roy – I don't know him particularly well and so don't really like or dislike him.

"We'll just have to see whether he's going to be the life and soul of the party or a bit downbeat because his team has lost.

"We never have an issue with that and always go to the opposition manager's office when we've lost. But Roy Keane is a bit of an unknown quantity to us.

"There is no real history between us other than the comments made over the Lee Martin affair."

Without a win in their last four Championship outings, Bristol City are under pressure to take three points on home soil tomorrow and Johnson admitted: "We need to get something from this game.

"But we also need to cut out the mistakes which cost us against Sheffield United. We have to look at the team as a whole but, if an individual is making too many mistakes, we have to leave them out of the team.

"We have a good group of lads here and none of them ever means to make a mistake. Unfortunately, those that do are the ones who tend to have a bad week afterwards.

"They feel bad about it because they care and we try to help them with it if we can."

Bradley Orr has now fully recovered from the Achilles injury which sidelined him for more than a month, but Johnson is expected to retain Cole Skuse at right-back.

Jamie McAllister has returned to training and is expected to play.