James Collins has hailed the impact of Luton boss Nathan Jones on his career as the striker prepares to make his 500th club appearance.
That major milestone could come in the fourth round of the FA Cup against Premier League Chelsea this lunchtime.
Collins has spoken of his decision to leave Aston Villa as a youngster to make his way in lower league football and it was while in League Two that Jones brought him to Kenilworth Road.
The hitman helped the Hatters to two successive promotions, while last of his 14 goals in his debut Championship campaign ultimately secured Town a final day Great Escape.
That was engineered by Jones who returned to the club for a second spell in charge during football’s coronavirus lockdown in May.
“For me, personally, he’s a massive part of my success at Luton,” said Collins of his manager, adding: “He signed me, showed trust in me, played me and I can’t thank him enough.
“He’s been brilliant with me and I think a lot of the lads here would say the exact same. When he went away (to Stoke) I was gutted because we were just building momentum in League One.
“But, fortunately for us, we carried that on as a squad and as players and Mick (Harford) as well, taking over.
“But I was gutted when he left. I thought, ‘here we go again’ because I had the same scenario with (Paolo) Di Canio at Swindon. We were top of the league, he left in January and we ended up in the play-offs and it wasn’t to be.
“But we (Luton) managed to kick on and go and win the league. When we got the news that he was coming back, again, I was over the moon because I know how good he’s been for me in the past.
“I knew we’d have a great chance of staying up. He proved that and we’ve gone on to do quite well this year too.”
Reflecting on his rise through the leagues with Luton, having made the majority of his 499 club appearances in the bottom two divisions, Collins said: “From League Two to League One, I don’t think there is much of a gap. You just maybe come up against bigger clubs with bigger fanbases, but I wouldn’t say that the quality is too different.
“But then when you step up to the Championship, it gets real then. The amount of games you play, the intensity and you get Premier League clubs coming down and you’re playing against them with massive squads, big budgets and big fanbases.
“That’s why I wanted to leave Villa when I was younger because I wanted to make my way up to the Championship at some point and I’ve managed to do that.
“A lot of the lads that are in this (Luton) squad now, signed for this club in League Two and the gaffer said he was signing players for the Championship. I think all of us have proved that you can make that jump.”
But facing eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea will be the toughest test of Collins’ time with Town, regardless of the Londoners’ current poor run of form, with just eight points from their last eight league games.
“You’ve got a team there who have got a lot of excellent players but maybe haven’t quite found the formula to win their games and maybe that can go to our advantage,” said the striker.
“But on the flip-side, they’ve got players there that are chomping at the bit to get in that side. Maybe they’ll be given a chance on Sunday and they’ll be bang at it to try to get in the first team in the Premier League.
“It can go on or two ways but whoever they do put out it’ll be of equal quality. We’ve just got to make sure that, whoever turns up on the day, that we’re ready to come up against them and try to beat them.”
And Collins believes the success his former side Crawley Town had in dumping Premier League Leeds United out of the FA Cup in the last round can serve as inspiration to the Hatters.
“I think that should give any team confidence that’s playing against a Premier League team,” he said.
“It just goes to show, 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’re certainly hoping that Chelsea have an off day and we can capitalise on that.”
