YOU MAY REMEMBER James Collins for the four appearances he made for Ireland last year. 

Well, he made a bit of a stir today as Luton saw their hopes of Sky Bet Championship survival improve with a shock 1-0 victory at 10-man Swansea thanks to a second-half header from the English-born striker.

Mick McCarthy took a shine to Collins – a 29-year-old forward whose career has been spent in the lower leagues, mainly with Shrewsbury, Crawley, Northampton, Swindon and – since 2017 – Luton.

Well today, the journeyman was journeying all the way down to south Wales. Bottom of the table going into the game, they did not play like relegation candidates as they had the better of a poor first half.

Swansea were far from their best and Collins made them pay in the second half as he scored a 72nd minute header – timing his leap perfectly to connect with Izzy Brown’s cross.

Still, his day was not over. Swansea, sub, Jordon Garrick was sent off in the 83rd minute  for a punch after a scuffle had broken out. Interestingly, neither Garrick nor Collins had anything to do with the initiation of the melee. Still, Garrick swung a punch at Collins and was sent off for his troubles.

His dismissal led to a bad-tempered last few minutes – not that it bothered Luton, who took home what could yet be a priceless three points after nine minutes of added time.