BLACKBURN Rovers' FA Cup hero Morten Gamst Pedersen is banishing talk of Cardiff - at least until after Sunday.

The Norwegian has three goals in the current cup run but given that the latest saved his side from a tense extra half hour against Burnley in the fifth round replay, he knows the threat of Championship sides can't be taken lightly.

So when Leicester City come to Ewood Park on Saturday Pedersen will be thinking about dishing out similar treatment to them rather than dreaming of a semi-final at the Millennium Stadium.

"Leicester is a huge game for me," he said. "Burnley was a massive game and everybody was talking about it. I didn't know they were such big rivals until then.

"This is maybe not a big game like that, but it is for us because it's a big opportunity to go through to the semi-finals.

"But in the cup you're not going to get that for free - we'll have to work hard.

"Leicester have been in the Premiership last year and have got a lot of good players. It's a massive tie for them also so it's going to be a good game."

Pedersen's first visit to Cardiff in the cup came in the third round when he kicked off his remarkable scoring run in the 1-1 draw at Ninian Park.

He netted again in the replay, played a starring role against Colchester in the fourth round then blasted Burnley into orbit with a thunderbolt in round five.

And although the quarter-final tie with the Foxes won't generate anything like the same frenzy as the East Lancashire derby did, it doesn't mean Pedersen and his team-mates will be any less pumped up.

And with two consecutive Premiership wins under their belts, this is no time for Rovers to start showing sympathy to another lower division side.

Pedersen said: "I don't think we'll give Leicester something for free. If we play like we did at the weekend and against Norwich I think we can get a good result.

"In the quarter-final of the FA Cup you don't meet an easy team and if you get to the quarter-finals you have to be doing something right, so you can't go easy on that game.

"But we are more relaxed because we got a win at Everton and it put us seven points clear of the bottom three.

"We have got a gap and can relax a little bit now and focus on the cup. When you climb the table, it's a good feeling."