Leicester City will face a fired up Huddersfield side today in the FA Cup fourth round after their manager Simon Grayson was sacked.
Grayson was sacked after the Terriers failed to pick up a league win in 12 games.
Caretaker-manager Mark Ellis said the players have been challenged to put the disruption of losing Grayson behind them when they face a City side that has won their last five games in all competitions.
Ellis said the pressure was off the Huddersfield players as they are considered underdogs, even though they are at home, and said a win against City could kick-start their stalling season.
"The players deserve credit for getting on with things, they put a great shift in (yesterday morning)," said Ellis.
"We have an FA Cup fourth-round game which is a very important one for the club.
"There are no points to play for, so perhaps the pressure is less, but it is an FA Cup tie with a view to getting into the fifth round.
"It's important because it's a game of football for Huddersfield.
"I've had 14 years here now as a player and now a coach. When I played here, I wasn't the best player, but I knew that if I put a shift in, the fans would get behind me, and we've challenged the players to do that.
"You don't go into a cup game with the notion that it doesn't matter – we want to win. A win could kick off a run."
But Ellis knows his side face as stern a test as they could have when City travel to the John Smith's Stadium, backed by 4,000 travelling supporters.
"Leicester are near the top of the league, they're a good outfit," he said.
"They have a good, experienced manager and have some real athletes in their team. It will be a hard game.
"We're all focused on the FA Cup tie at the moment and, as a former captain in a promotion-winning side, it will be an honour to lead the team at our stadium.
"I'll embrace that and then we'll take it from there."
City duo Neil Danns and Jermaine Beckford, who are on loan at Huddersfield until the end of the season, are ineligible to face their parent club this afternoon.
