The top and bottom ranked teams left in the Capital One Cup go toe to toe in the last 16, with fans of Shrewsbury Town hoping their striker James Collins can continue his knack of scoring against top-flight opposition when Chelsea arrive at New Meadow. Despite a career spent largely pottering around the lower leagues after being deemed surplus to requirements at Aston Villa, the 23-year-old opened the scoring in a League Cup defeat against Arsenal during his first spell at Shrewsbury.
The following season, Collins went on to prove he can hack it where some feel Lionel Messi might be found wanting, scoring a hat-trick in a seven-goal thriller to send Swindon Town into the third round of the competition at Stoke’s expense on a cold night at the Britannia. Now back in Shropshire following a fruitless season with Hibernian, Collins will have the chance to grab more headlines with the arrival of José Mourinho’s league leaders to take on the League Two side who have already eliminated Blackpool, Leicester and Norwich.
“It’s not as frantic on the field and it’s more calm,” says Collins of the difference between playing top clubs compared to the kick and rush of League Two. “But in the stands it’ll be more frantic because the crowd get behind you a lot more when it’s a bigger stage, which is always good. I think Chelsea will probably be the best game I’ve played in terms of opposition, so it’ll be another good test for me and the boys.”
Under the stewardship of Micky Mellon, Shrewsbury have passed recent tests comfortably and four consecutive league wins have left them fourth in the table, three points behind the leaders, Luton Town. A week ago they put five past Bury without reply, following up with a weekend victory over Portsmouth in which players could have been forgiven for getting lost in a Chelsea-related reverie and taking their eye off the ball. Collins insists it was an obvious trap in which they were wary of becoming ensnared. “You should enjoy these moments but if you dwell on them too much they can bounce back to bite you,” he says.
Despite Bradford City having proved as recently as two seasons ago that while unlikely, it is not beyond the wit of a League Two side to make it to the Capital One Cup final, all available evidence suggests these particular Shrews should not take a great deal of taming by the mixture of first-team stalwarts and reserves likely to be fielded by Mourinho.
“In their previous game in the Cup [against Bolton] they played some big names and some not-so-big names, but whoever they play it will obviously be a tough test because they’re all Chelsea players,” Collins says. “Personally, I’d rather the really big-hitters play because then you’ve got something to remember the game by and hopefully get a shirt afterwards.”
Asked to imagine what might happen in a hypothetical situation where his side are losing 3-0 in the dying minutes and his manager is offered one of his opposite number’s famously premature handshakes, Collins laughs.
“Jesus, I dunno,” he says. “I think you’ve have to have that much respect for Mourinho you’ve probably got to shake his hand. I don’t know what the gaffer would do in that situation, to be honest. Hopefully we’ll be beating them and won’t get to find out.”
