Collins insists Crawley's cup shock against Leeds can boost the Hatters for a Chelsea giant-killing

Luton striker James Collins believes that the FA Cup upset caused by his former club Crawley Town against Leeds United this season should give Town every confidence of delivering their own giant-killing at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

The Red Devils dumped out Marcelo Bielsa's Premier League side 3-0 in the previous round to earn plenty of plaudits for the manner of their performance as they hit the headlines the following day.

Collins, who spent a season with the club ahead of his move to Luton, insists it can only boost the players in the Town squad that they can do something similar when faced with Chelsea today, saying: "I actually watched the game and I thought they were outstanding.

"Credit to the Crawley lads, they were brilliant and deserved the win on the day definitely, they were the better team.

“I think that should give any lower league team confidence that is playing against a Premier League team, because it just goes to show that if you turn up on the day and the Premier League opposition have a bit of an off-day, then anyone can beat anyone.

"We are certainly hoping that Chelsea have an off-day and we can capitalise on that.”

Collins does know that to do that, mistakes must be kept to an absolute minimum when sharing a pitch with players whose price-tags will dwarf those paid out by the Hatters.

He continued: “It is the old cliche, it’s just another game of football, but we are going to come up against some real, real high quality with some of the players they’ve got in that squad.

"When you cross that white line, you're on that pitch together for a reason, we’re into the next round of the cup on merit and we're there to compete.

"I’m sure it doesn’t matter who you come up against you've still got to do your jobs whether you're playing a lower league side or a Premier League side, but I think just the margin of error is going to smaller, as if you make mistakes against a quality team like Chelsea then you might get punished.

"We’re not going there to make the numbers up though, we're going there to try and get into the next round of the FA Cup and that’s the mentality right the way through.”

Although Luton will go into the game as underdogs, hopes have been raised due to the poor form Frank Lampard’s team are in, losing five of their last eight Premier League games, leaving the manager under some serious pressure.

Collins added: “I think you’ve got a team there who have got a lot of excellent players but who haven’t maybe found the formula to win games, and maybe that can go to our advantage.

"But then on the flip side, you’ve got players there who are chomping at the bit to get in that side and maybe they’ll be given a chance on Sunday, and they’ll be bang at it to try and get in the first team in the Premier League, so it can go one or two ways.

"I think whoever they do put out, it’ll be of equal quality so we’ve just got to make sure that whoever turns up on the day that we are ready to come up against them and try to beat them.”