Neill Collins

Neill Collins
Collins during the Jody Craddock testimonial match in May 2014
Personal information
Full name Neill William Collins[1]
Date of birth (1983-09-02) 2 September 1983 (age 41)[2]
Place of birth Troon, Scotland[2]
Height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)[3]
Position(s) Centre-back
Team information
Current team
Raith Rovers (manager)
Youth career
Kilmarnock
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2002 Queen's Park 32 (0)
2002–2004 Dumbarton 63 (4)
2004–2007 Sunderland 18 (1)
2005–2006Hartlepool United (loan) 22 (0)
2006Sheffield United (loan) 2 (0)
2006–2007Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) 3 (1)
2007–2009 Wolverhampton Wanderers 81 (8)
2009–2010Preston North End (loan) 16 (0)
2010 Preston North End 5 (1)
2010Leeds United (loan) 9 (0)
2010–2011 Leeds United 21 (0)
2011–2016 Sheffield United 177 (12)
2015Port Vale (loan) 7 (0)
2016–2018 Tampa Bay Rowdies 61 (3)
Total 517 (30)
International career
2005 Scotland U21 7 (0)
2007 Scotland B 1 (0)
Managerial career
2018–2023 Tampa Bay Rowdies
2023–2024 Barnsley
2024– Raith Rovers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Neill William Collins (born 2 September 1983) is a Scottish football manager and former player who is the head coach of Scottish Championship club Raith Rovers.

Collins is a former Scotland U21 and Scotland B international who played as a centre-back. He started his playing career with Queen's Park before moving to Dumbarton. A transfer to English side Sunderland followed in 2004, but he failed to establish himself in the first team during his three-year spell on Wearside. After loan moves to Hartlepool United and Sheffield United, he was loaned to Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he became a first-team regular and signed a permanent deal in 2007. Following Wolves' promotion to the Premier League, he fell out of favour and moved on loan again, this time to Preston North End. Still, although they signed him permanently in 2010, he was never a regular. He quickly moved to Leeds United, with whom he won promotion to the Championship in 2010. After losing his place the following season, Collins returned to Sheffield United, one of his former loan clubs, where he made over 100 appearances. He lost his first-team place in the 2014–15 season and joined Port Vale on loan in March 2015. He moved to America in March 2016 to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. By the end of his 18-year playing career, he had scored 35 goals in 583 league and cup appearances.

He took his first post in management in May 2018 when he transitioned from player to head coach at the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The 2021 season would prove highly successful as he won two USL Championship Coach of the Month awards, as well as the Coach of the Year award, as his side won the Eastern Conference and went on to finish as runners-up in the playoffs. He returned to England as the head coach of Barnsley in July 2023 and was sacked with one game left to play of the 2023–24 season with his team in the League One play-off places. He was appointed as the head coach of Raith Rovers in September 2024.

  1. ^ "Neill Collins". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  2. ^ a b "FootballSquads - Port Vale - 2014/2015". www.footballsquads.co.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference taoh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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