LAST year’s FA Cup hero Padraig Amond believes Newport County AFC can raise their game for the big occasion once again when they take on Leicester City in Sunday’s third-round tie (kick-off 4.30pm).

County have endured a miserable five weeks in League Two, losing four and drawing one of their last five games to drop to 12th in the table.

But they proved last year that they can step it up against the big boys in the FA Cup with a stunning win over Leeds United and a dramatic draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

And Amond, who put the Exiles ahead against Spurs last January, is counting on the home fans to create another hostile atmosphere at Rodney Parade to inspire their side to upset the odds again this weekend.

“You saw with the Spurs game last year that the atmosphere was unbelievable,” said the striker, who has 15 goals already this season.

“That can lift the players but if you can’t get up for playing Leicester City, who were the Premier League champions two years ago, you’re in the wrong business.

“I don’t think there’s any real expectation on us, apart from the players’ [expectations],” he added.

“We’ll go into it and think we can get a result and we proved we can do that last year.

“But Leicester will probably look at last year’s results and they won’t take us for granted.

“And that’s not saying that Leeds or Spurs took us for granted last year, because you could see with the line-ups [they picked] that they didn’t.”

Amond is hoping that the Foxes big stars make the trip and he’s looking forward to going up against former England striker Jamie Vardy.

“It’s great for the club to be welcoming the champions of the Premier League from a couple of years ago here,” said the Irishman.

“Jamie Vardy will be looking forward to it. He’s used to playing at non-league grounds and lower-league grounds and he did alright then.

“They’ll be up for it. It’s as tough a draw as we could have got. They won’t take it for granted.

“But the whole excitement around the tie and the money that the club is going to make is most important.

“Are we going to win the FA Cup? Highly unlikely. But we can cause an upset like we did last year, hopefully, and again make some more money for the club.”