Leicester boss Nigel Pearson praised Chris Wood for bringing a "new dimension to the club" after scoring his seventh goal in five matches in the 1-1 draw at Huddersfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
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The New Zealand international came off the bench to keep Leicester in the cup with an 82nd-minute strike after managerless Huddersfield appeared poised to take the win thanks to a Lee Novak penalty.
Wood, a £1.25million signing from West Brom, scored twice on his debut in a 6-1 thrashing of Huddersfield on New Year's Day and has not looked back since.
And Pearson said: "He has brought a new dimension to the club and has all the qualities we are looking for. He is doing what we hoped he'd do."
Pearson rested five players including strike duo Wood and David Nugent, but brought both on after an hour to dig the Foxes out of a hole against a Huddersfield side who appeared revitalised.
Pearson said: "Looking at our own performance we were a bit disjointed but you have to give credit to Huddersfield.
"I made some changes, some through choice and some forced on us, but we showed good fighting qualities to come back into the game.
"The draw is not an ideal result because our focus is the league but I don't want to lose games and I would rather still be in the competition.
"Nugent and Wood have done very well but we have a few options in attacking positions and what is just as important is that we have some good creative players as well."
Huddersfield sacked manager Simon Grayson on Thursday after a run of one win in 13 matches and turned in a much improved display, taking the lead through Novak in the 74th minute after Jack Hunt had been fouled in the area.
Pearson expressed sadness at Grayson's treatment and felt Town had been goaded into life by the dismissal.
"Huddersfield have decided to make a change and it's always disappointing when managers lose their jobs," he said. "Mark Lillis has had a response."
Former Town striker Lillis, the club's academy chief, said it was an honour to take temporary charge.
He added: "It was a fantastic experience for me being caretaker manager in an FA Cup tie. It's an honour for me and hopefully the fans have gone away knowing we have had a good go."
Lillis refused to be drawn on whether he wanted the job permanently and said: "I am the academy manager and I will go back to that when a new manager is appointed and support him all I can.
"It's a big job and a good job. This is a Championship club with a great stadium and a chairman who puts his money where his mouth is.
"It's a great job for someone and no doubt there were some managers or their spies in the ground looking on."
Lillis said he was pleased to remain in the competition and added: "A couple of the lads came in disappointed but we are still in the hat.
"Leicester for me are the top team in the Championship and to rest a couple of players and have to throw them on in the second half shows us respect. He had to go for the big-hitters."
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