Robert Earnshaw believes Cardiff City can salvage their season with a repeat of their FA Cup giant-killing 21 years ago.

Scott Young’s late winner saw second division Cardiff beat the Premier League leaders at raucous Ninian Park.

The gap may not be as large for this Sunday’s third-round tie but Earnshaw admits a home win could be as telling.

“The team is capable of much more. Hopefully this is just the sort of game to turn the season around,” he said.

Sunday’s tie will be almost exactly 21 years to the day when the clubs famously met in the FA Cup third round in 2002.

Leeds, who had reached the semi-finals of the Champions League the previous season, were flying high at the top of the – then called – FA Barclaycard Premiership and had just signed striker Robbie Fowler for £11m. Cardiff, in contrast, were mid-table in the third tier.

Little wonder then that Leeds manager David O’Leary predicted his side would “begin and end” their FA Cup campaign in the Welsh capital – which was also hosting the final at the Millennium Stadium.

However the young Bluebirds had different ideas.

“We were in the second division back then but we were flying, getting promoted through the leagues and building,” re-called Earnshaw on Radio Wales Breakfast.

“We were a young team and we believed we had nothing to lose, so we just went out there and went for it.

“It was the Premier League leaders, who were full of superstars at the time. I remember Rio Ferdinand played as well as Robbie Fowler, Mark Viduka, so many top players. We just thought, this is our chance to go up against some of the very best and possibly beat them.”

Leeds went ahead early through Viduka but Graham Kavanagh equalised from a free-kick before Alan Smith was sent off just before half-time for elbowing Cardiff’s Andy Legg.

The game was locked at 1-1 before Young smashed home the 87th-minute winner from a corner.

“It was one of the biggest shocks in the history of the FA Cup and I was lucky enough to be a part of it on the pitch,” said Earnshaw

“It could definitely happen again [this weekend] though it is different now.

“We were relatively smaller in stature than now as Cardiff have been in the Premier League a couple of times since then, and Leeds at the time were top of the Premier League, like Arsenal today.”

Cardiff are again languishing, one place and one point above the relegation zone in the Championship and without a win in their last seven games.

Earnshaw said: “It’s going to be a break from the league for Cardiff and this is just the sort of high-profile game that could really kick-start their season.

“I played with [manager] Mark Hudson and have done some of my coaches badges with him and I believe he can turn things around.

“This is not where he would want to be but he will be planning exactly what needs to be done. He’s capable and so is the team of doing more.”