BLACKBURN Rovers and Burnley were given the perfect incentive ahead of their FA Cup replay at Ewood Park when the draw for the quarter finals threw up an intriguing home tie against Leicester City for the winners.

The two East Lancashire rivals, who drew 0-0 at Turf Moor on Sunday, managed to avoid the big guns in yesterday's sixth round draw, thus heightening the chances of one of them reaching the semi-finals in Cardiff in April.

Both managers were quick to point out last night that neither side can afford to look beyond next Tuesday's fifth round replay.

However, the prospect of a home tie against a team from the Championship in the next round is the perfect carrot for rival bosses Mark Hughes and Steve Cotterill as they begin to make their preparations for next week's re-match.

Whoever ultimately earns the right to meet the Foxes will stand just one game away from a semi-final trip to the Millennium Stadium.

But regardless of the outcome at Ewood next week, there's sure to be a reunion of sorts when Leicester visit East Lancashire.

Rovers stars Robbie Savage and Paul Dickov are both former Leicester players, whilst City winger Keith Gillespie spent four and a half years on the books at Ewood.

On top of that, the Foxes' first team coach is Rob Kelly, the former coach of Rovers' youth team.

There's no shortage of connections between Burnley and Leicester, either.

Clarets boss Steve Cotterill was given a route back into the game by the Foxes late last season when Micky Adams, the former Leicester boss, invited him onto his coaching staff.

Burnley defender Frank Sinclair also spent six seasons on the playing staff at Leicester, where he was a team-mate of both Dickov and Savage.

A cautious Cotterill said: 'Obviously there will be eyebrows raised at being drawn against one of my old clubs, but I cannot afford to look that far ahead at this moment.

'We still have a very difficult replay at Blackburn before we can even contemplate playing Leicester, and before that we have two important league games we need to focus on.'

The draw also means the Clarets could potentially face Leicester twice in the same week if they overcome Blackburn in the replay.

City are already confirmed as the visitors for a Championship clash on Tuesday, March 8, just four days before the weekend of the quarter finals.

Rovers manager Mark Hughes said: 'Our only FA Cup consideration at the moment is Burnley in the replay. But the prospect of a home draw is all that we could have hoped for. In that respect, it's very pleasing but we still have a big test to beat Burnley.'