Robins: 'Raising levels has galvanising effect'

MARK Robins is hoping to avoid a Spurs repeat when Stoke host Fulham in the fourth round tomorrow (2pm).

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Robins admits his heart started beating faster in 2013 when he saw the all-star lineup Tottenham picked against his Coventry side in a third-round tie - and any hope that Gareth Bale or Emmanuel Adebeyor might not take it seriously quickly evaporated in a 3-0 defeat.

But he knows the power of this competition if the Premier League team doesn't quite get it right.

He said: "We're the underdogs in this game, quite rightly because they're really well coached.

"Marco Silva is a really, really top coach, the way he gets them playing, the rotations that they have got, the quality that they have - all of those things play against a Championship side make things difficult.