MENTION the FA Cup in front of Danny Collins, and his eyes light up. Tellingly, though, his enthusiasm has little to do with Sunderland.

Since joining the Black Cats in October 2004, Collins has never progressed beyond the fourth round of the competition, yet it would be wrong to suggest his FA Cup record is a let-down.

Back in November 2002, a 20-year-old Collins was part of the Vauxhall Motors side that knocked Queens Park Rangers out of the FA Cup courtesy of a first-round penalty shoot-out success.

At the time, it was a cause of considerable euphoria, but four years on, and it has become a source of regret. Having moved to one of the biggest clubs in the land, a first-round victory for a bunch of part-timers should not be the only FA Cup memory Collins deems worthy of discussion.

“I’ve been at Sunderland more than four years now, but my best FA Cup run is still with Vauxhall Motors,” said the defender, who has recovered from a bout of concussion to take part in today’s fourth-round game with Blackburn Rovers. “It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.

“I was 20 at the time and I remember it as a great experience.

We had to play five or six rounds just to get the first round – if I won five or six FA Cup games in a season with Sunderland, we’d probably win the competition.

“We made it through to the first round proper, and played against QPR, who were the equivalent of a League One side at the time. We were the league below the Conference and nobody really gave us much of a chance.

“We drew 0-0 at home, then went down to Loftus Road, drew 1-1 and beat them on penalties. It was a great night, and the journey back from London was even better!

That’s what the FA Cup’s all about, stories like that.

“But it should also be about a team like Sunderland doing well. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t done very well in any of the cups, and that’s one of my biggest regrets from my time at the club.”

Ironically, Sunderland reached the semi-finals of the competition six months before Collins moved to the Stadium of Light, losing 1-0 to Millwall at Old Trafford.

That represents the club’s best FA Cup achievement since Malcolm Crosby led them out at Wembley in 1992, but with Portsmouth and Cardiff having contested last season’s final, Collins sees no reason why Wembley should be off limits come May.

“It doesn’t seem to be a closed shop any more,” he said. “A Championship side got to the final last year, so it’s all about performing well on the day and getting on a bit of a roll. If the so-called Big Four don’t perform, and you have a good day and play to your potential, why shouldn’t you come out on top?

“You just have to creep through the early rounds. If you do that, then all of a sudden you pop up and think, ‘We’re in the quarter-finals here’. From there, you sit up and take it a bit more seriously.”

Sunderland have to beat Blackburn before they can look too far into the future, and having disposed of Bolton in the third round, this will be the second time in a month the Black Cats have faced topflight opposition in the cup.

The draw could have been kinder, but Collins claims he would rather be facing Premier League opposition this afternoon than an in-form side from lower down the Football League ladder.

“We’ve had two Premier League teams in the cup, and that means the matches don’t really feel like cup games,” he said. “They feel more like a normal Premier League game, but I think sometimes that’s a good thing.

“If you’re playing against a lower-league team, you can sometimes take the match for granted. But we won’t be taking anything for granted because we know all about Blackburn and we know they’re a Premier League team.”