Hull City boss Steve Bruce rates today's clash with Leicester City as bigger than the FA Cup final.
The Tigers host Nigel Pearson's strugglers at the KC Stadium buoyed by their 3-1 Boxing Day win at Sunderland - a first league win in 11 attempts since October 4.
Bruce said: "That's what it means to me. Nigel will want to turn us over. It's a bigger game for me than the cup final because if we turn them over to go nine points clear of them at the halfway stage, it's a big turnaround to be caught, huge.
"As we've seen, it's been difficult enough to win one or two games, let alone turn around a three-game swing.
"We are there [at the bottom end of the table] ourselves. We have only been four years in our history in the division, so we are going to be in and around it, but we always expected to be.
"The league is starting to take shape. Halfway going into January, the teams you would think were going to be at the top are there - there are one or two surprises like there always is.
"The teams at the bottom, I could have told you the bottom eight going into January - I might not have got it the right way around, but we have to accept that we are going to be one of them."
