Steve Evans is expecting to see a "keenly contested" Yorkshire derby this Saturday, and the United head coach believes his side will be facing a "different" Huddersfield Town to the one beaten 3-0 in November’s reverse fixture.

United head into the Elland Road clash looking to make it four league wins in a row and five consecutive Championship victories over the Terriers, who sit five points below Evans’ men in the league table in 18th.

Along with the win at the John Smith’s Stadium earlier in the season, United have recorded convincing victories in Huddersfield’s previous two visits to Elland Road – winning 3-0 last term and 5-1 the campaign before.

But Evans believes, such is the nature of the division, that the margins will be much tighter when the two sides face off on Saturday afternoon.

“Every game in the Championship is keenly contested - the finest of margins - and Saturday will prove no different,” he said.

“We said before Bolton that it was a must-win game. Then with Cardiff and Blackburn we said ‘let’s treat it a game at a time’ and we put all our effort and concentration into that. It’s what we’ll do against Huddersfield.

“Winning brings confidence. It brings positivity. We were under severe pressure against Brighton and no-one had to tell us that. But we believed, and we believed that these players could win a lot of matches.

“We try to keep the feeling in the camp as good when you’re winning as when you’re losing. It’s important that people have a good culture to work in. But people have an extra bounce and it’s good to see them smiling at Thorp Arch, every minute of every day.”

Goals from Mirco Antenucci, Chris Wood and Alex Mowatt sealed November’s victory at Huddersfield in one of the displays of the season so far, but Evans has warned his side to be “guarded” against a team who will be looking to exact revenge.

“When Alex put us 3-0 in front, it was a case of enjoying the afternoon,” he said.

“Their goalkeeper had another save late on to stop it being 4-0 but those days are few and far between in the Championship. We had one recently and they’re difficult to take.

“What you must always have after a bad result is a reaction. David Wagner had it at Huddersfield and we’ve had it recently.

“That was comfortable in the end but this is different. People should be guarded. It’s a different Huddersfield Town coming here. It’s a derby where we’ll both claim to be favourites to win it.

“My recollections of Huddersfield are that we were 2-0 up at the interval and didn’t deserve to be. Antenucci scored a fantastic goal and made another for Chris Wood.

“That set us on our way and we controlled the second half but it was perhaps not justified that we had a 2-0 lead at half-time. In football, things like that happen.

“They’re a different team, in personnel, shape and results. From that point of view we know they’ll be up for the game.

"They’ve got some good players for this level and their results up until the last one or two have shown that. It’ll be fiercely competitive, like all derbies are.”