FA Cup winner Ashley Young is not short of belief that he could add a second winners’ medal to his collection as Town prepare to start their campaign against Blackpool this weekend.

This weekend’s third round meeting with the Tangerines at Portman Road will likely see Young line up in the competition for a fifth different club in his career, with the Blues looking to reach the fourth round for a fourth successive season.

While Town, currently third in the Championship, are far from the favourites to lift the trophy for a second time, Young knows that knockout football can provide a different dynamic and that only a handful of positive results can land you in the latter stages.

“Of course, when you’re in every competition you want to win it,” he said. “We’re not going to be in this competition not to win it. We want to go as far as we can and that’s where the confidence comes from.

“A good cup run can help you in the league. Of course, our main focus is going to be on the league and getting promotion, that’s what we want. When you get to the FA Cup, the biggest traditional cup in England and you’ve had a taste of winning it, who says we can’t go as far as we want to.

“We’ve spoken about it today, you go on a good cup run and one, two, three games and all of a sudden you’re in the quarter-final stage and then who knows.”

Young has found league action difficult to come by since arriving from Everton last summer, starting just three Championship matches with Darnell Furlong clearly Kieran McKenna’s first choice at right-back.

A switch of focus this weekend may provide an opportunity for players on the fringes of starting regularly in the Championship to gain valuable minutes with McKenna expected to ring the changes.

Young certainly feels that the Blues have a deep enough squad to be able to do so, with the entire 25-man playing group having something to play for when selected.

He said: “The FA Cup, for me, is the biggest traditional cup in England. It’s a break from the Championship, but it’s another competition where if you go further in the cup, you can build on that in the league and take confidence from winning games in the cup.

“Having a good cup run does help. If you speak to other people, a lot will say getting out of the cup and focusing on the league is more important. For us, every competition that we’re in, we want to go and win and do as well as we can. We want to keep this momentum going and in the FA Cup we want to do that as well.

“When you’re not playing week in, week out, it’s competition that you’ve got. You’ve got two or three players in every position, it’s competition and you’ve got to work day in, day out to get in that team. When you do get that opportunity, it’s to go out there and give as best as you can.

“Everyone in this team and squad has got something to give. Whenever the manager calls upon you, you know you’ve got to go out there and give 100 per cent and want to show what you can give to this team.

“Whatever team is picked, hopefully I’ll be in it and I’ll look to go out and give as much as I can.

“I’ve said all along that the way the club have gone about their business in the summer, whether there’s going to be any business in January, we’ve got two, possibly three players in each position. For me, it’s one of, if not the best squad in the Championship.

“Things are going well at the minute with the momentum we’ve got, we just want to keep adding to that and with a cup run you can do that as well.”

Young’s previous FA Cup win came with Manchester United in 2016, when the Red Devils came from behind against Crystal Palace at Wembley to win in extra time thanks to Jesse Lingard’s volleyed winner.

Reflecting on that special day, the former England international said: “It was incredible, to be honest. To actually be able to walk up those steps at Wembley, the most iconic stadium in the world, was an achievement that you can’t really put into words.

“My family were all there — my kids, my wife, my mum and dad, the other 50,000 tickets I got for that day — everyone was there. It was such a proud moment that I look back on in my career. It would be nice to add another one to the tally that I’ve got so far.

“I remember Jesse scoring, that’s all I remember! Chris Smalling got sent off in that, and I remember Alan Pardew’s dance on the sideline which stood out and got played a few times when I was at United.

"Those kinds of moments are fond memories that you want more and more of as a player when you’ve achieved them.

“I’ve also been on the receiving end of losing in the final. It’s a tough walk when you lose, it’s a long way up and a long way back down. You can have a fantastic cup run and it can help you in the league. I’m sure that momentum would do us the world of good.”

One thing that the Blues will be looking to avoid this weekend is a cup upset, with Ian Evatt’s Blackpool currently 18th in League One and 39 places below Town in the pyramid.

“I can only think back to the second time around when I was at Aston Villa losing to Stevenage,” Young recalled. “Other than that, I don’t want to think about it if I have.

“Of course, there’s always a cup upset and a lower league team will beat a team in the higher divisions. We’re hoping that’s not going to be us, we don’t want any cup upsets around here.”

For Young, memories of the FA Cup stretch further back to winning the competition as a player or making his debut as a youth player at Watford.

The 40-year-old spoke about his childhood when he would regularly watch his father Luther play a local match on the morning of the FA Cup final alongside his brothers Lewis, Kyle and Martin.

“My dad used to play for a team called Old Actonians,” he said. “Me and my brothers used to play the game before the FA Cup; it was basically a day out, and we’d get down there from seven o’clock in the morning.

“My dad would then play for this team and he’d last about 10 minutes, he didn’t last long. All he wanted to do was nutmeg someone and walk off the pitch.

“That was one of the memories, we used to watch him during the morning and then after that him and his friends would be in the bar and drink the bar dry while we were waiting for the FA Cup to come on.

“It was one of those things where all of my brothers wanted to play in the game, sons were able to play in the games and that’s where the traditional values of the FA Cup were for me, going down with my dad to watch him play the game and then the build-up to the FA Cup final as it was, to then see the final and watch it.

“It was one of those things where we used to sit and be like ‘one day, I want to be there’. I was fortunate enough to be there and go and win it. For me, the tradition of the cup was massive, so I'm looking forward to it.”

Photo: TWTD