Michael Collins (footballer, born 1986)

Michael Collins

Personal information
Full name	Michael Anthony Collins [1]
Date of birth	(1986-04-30) 30 April 1986 (age 38) [1]
Place of birth	Halifax, England
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) [1]
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Sheffield United (Lead U23s Coach)
Youth career
0000–2004	Huddersfield Town
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2004–2010	Huddersfield Town	173	(19)
2010–2014	Scunthorpe United	79	(2)
2014	→ AFC Wimbledon (loan)	9	(0)
2014–2016	Oxford United	39	(2)
2015	→ York City (loan)	7	(0)
2016	Bengaluru	11	(0)
2016–2017	Leyton Orient	30	(0)
2017–2018	Halifax Town	22	(0)
2018–2019	Alfreton Town	3	(0)
International career
2003	Republic of Ireland U18
2003–2005	Republic of Ireland U19
2007–2008	Republic of Ireland U21	6	(2)
Managerial career
2018	Bradford City
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 20:07, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

Michael Anthony Collins (born 30 April 1986) is an English football player and coach. He is currently the Lead U21 Coach for Sheffield United.

As a player, he has played club football for Huddersfield Town, Scunthorpe United, AFC Wimbledon, Oxford United, York City, Leyton Orient and F.C. Halifax Town; he also had a spell playing in India for I-League side Bengaluru and represented the Republic of Ireland under-18, under-19 and under-21 teams.

Club career

Huddersfield Town

Collins was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. ^[1] Having come through Huddersfield Town's academy, he made his first team debut in a 1–0 home win over Blackpool on 19 February 2005. ^[2] Collins made eight appearances in the 2004–05 season, with seven of them being starts. ^[2] He signed a professional contract with the club on 11 May 2005. ^[1]

He made his first start of the 2005–06 season coming on as an 89th-minute substitute in a 3–1 home win over Swansea City on 13 August 2005. ^[3] His first start came in a 4–2 away win in the League Cup over Chesterfield on 24 August 2005. ^[3] Collins scored his first goal on 18 February 2006 in a 5–0 win over Milton Keynes Dons. ^[3] He came on as a substitute in the FA Cup third round tie in January 2006 against Premier League champions Chelsea, ^[3] and set-up Gary Taylor-Fletcher for an equaliser.^{[ citation needed ]} Collins made 21 appearances in all competitions Huddersfield in 2005–06. ^[3]

Collins made his first appearance of 2006–07 on the opening day of the season, coming on in the 66th minute in a 2–1 away defeat away to Gillingham. ^[4] He made his first start of the season in a 2–0 defeat by Mansfield Town at home in the first round of the League Cup on 22 August 2006. ^[4] His first league start of the season came on 26 August 2006 in a 1–1 draw at home with Nottingham Forest. ^[4] Collins scored his first goal of the season in a 2–1 away win over Port Vale on 21 October 2006. ^[4] He scored in the last two matches of the season; first in a 4–2 win over Millwall on 21 April 2007 and then on the final day in a 3–1 win over Leyton Orient on 5 May. ^[4] Collins finished 2006–07 with 46 appearances in all competitions, starting 41 with five coming off the bench, scoring four goals. ^[4]

He scored his first league goal of 2007–08 in Huddersfield's 2–0 win over Yeovil Town at Huish Park on 2 February 2008. ^[5] During 2007–08, Huddersfield manager Andy Ritchie tended to use Collins as cover in right-back and right-midfield positions, but he mainly tended to use Collins in tandem with Andy Holdsworth in Huddersfield's central midfield.^{[ citation needed ]} On 16 February 2008, Collins equalised Frank Lampard's goal on the stroke of half-time in the FA Cup fifth round at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea. ^[5] However, Huddersfield lost the match 3–1. ^[5]

After being left out of the first-team squad for most of the first part of 2008–09 by manager Stan Ternent, he was re-called to the team by caretaker manager Gerry Murphy to play in the FA Cup first-round tie at home to Port Vale.^{[ citation needed ]} Collins scored Huddersfield's equaliser, but was unable to prevent them losing 4–3. ^[6] A week later, Collins scored his first league goal of the season, with a 90th-minute winner in a 2–1 win at Elland Road against local rivals Leeds United. ^[6] Collins scored 10 goals in 2008–09, from 39 appearances. ^[6]

Collins gained a red card in Huddersfield's first match of 2009–10 away to Southend United on 8 August 2009. ^[7] His first goal of the season came in the 65th minute of Huddersfield's 2–1 home victory over Yeovil Town on 29 August 2009. ^[7] Collins was ruled out for the remainder of 2009–10 in April 2010, following surgery on a broken finger,^{[ citation needed ]} but he returned as a substitute in the 2–1 defeat at Exeter City. ^[7] He then came on as an 89th-minute substitute in the first leg of Huddersfield's play-off semi-final match with Millwall, ^[7] and was an unused substitute in the second leg defeat at The Den on 18 May 2010.^{[ citation needed ]} Collins made 35 appearances in 2009–10, scoring three goals. ^[7] Along with seven other players, he was added to the transfer list by manager Lee Clark in May 2010. ^[8]

Scunthorpe United

Collins joined Championship club Scunthorpe United on 6 July 2010 for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract. ^[9]

On 20 February 2014, Collins joined AFC Wimbledon on loan for the rest of the 2013–14 season. ^[10]

Oxford United

On 15 July 2014, Collins signed a one-year deal at Oxford United, becoming new manager Michael Appleton's first signing. ^[11] Appleton said: "Michael has played 300 league games, most of them at a higher level, and will bring a little bit of know-how and quality to the squad." ^[11] He made 43 appearances for Oxford, scoring twice, before joining their League Two rivals York City on 2 October 2015 on a one-month loan. ^[12] Collins left Oxford by mutual agreement on 7 January 2016, after failing to make any first-team appearances in the 2015–16 season. ^[13]

Bengaluru

On 21 January 2016, Collins signed for I-League club Bengaluru. ^[14] He played a total of 11 league matches for the Blues' and left the club in May 2016. ^[15]

Leyton Orient

On 28 October 2016, Collins signed for Leyton Orient on a three-month contract. ^[16] He turned down the offer of a new one-year contract with Orient at the end of 2016–17, after the club's relegation to the National League. ^[17]

F.C. Halifax Town

On 9 December 2017, Collins came out of retirement to sign for his hometown club, F.C. Halifax Town of the National League. ^[18]

Alfreton Town

He returned to playing in December 2018 with Alfreton Town. ^[19]

International career

Qualifying through the parentage rule, Collins made his international debut in a Republic of Ireland under-18 match in April 2003.^{[ citation needed ]} He was the captain of the Irish under-19 squad and on 14 March 2007, he got his first call-up to the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad for a match against the Netherlands.^{[ citation needed ]} However, he was forced to withdraw from the squad after picking up a shoulder injury in a league match for Huddersfield against Brighton & Hove Albion.^{[ citation needed ]}

Collins made his under-21 debut against Germany in a friendly match at the Sportpark Ronhof in Fürth on 21 August 2007.^{[ citation needed ]} His home debut came against Portugal at Turners Cross in Cork on 7 September 2007.^{[ citation needed ]} On 15 May 2008, he scored his first goals for the under-21s in a 3–1 win over Malaysia in an Intercontinental Cup match in Malaysia.^{[ citation needed ]} Collins made six appearances scoring twice between 2007 and 2008. ^[20]

Coaching career

Bradford Under 18's

In July 2017, Collins joined League One club Bradford City as their under-18s lead coach. ^[21]

Bradford head coach

He was appointed head coach of Bradford City on 18 June 2018, with Martin Drury and Greg Abbott named as his assistants. ^[22] He won his first league game, 1-0 away at Shrewsbury, but won only one more game out of 7 in total, ^[23] and was sacked by the club on 3 September 2018. ^[24] He later became a coach at Sunderland's academy. ^[23]

Sheffield United

In November 2020, Collins joined the Sheffield United Academy as a midfield position specific coach. During the following summer of 2021, Collins was appointed as the head of individual development for the Under 21's and below.

In January 2022, and following Paul Heckingbottoms promotion to the manager of the football club, Collins was appointed the lead under 21 coach. Collins would go on to lead the under 21's to the Professional Development League North title. In the season of 2022-2023, Collins would again lead them to another Northern title. They then narrowly missed out on the Professional Development League National Title, losing 2-1 to Millwall FC in extra time.

Personal life

He is the cousin of professional rugby league players Scott Grix and Simon Grix. ^[25]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup [a]		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Huddersfield Town	2004–05 [2]	League One	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0
	2005–06 [3]	League One	17	1	2	0	1	0	1 [b]	0	21	1
	2006–07 [4]	League One	43	4	1	0	1	0	1 [b]	0	46	4
	2007–08 [5]	League One	41	2	5	1	1	0	1 [b]	1	48	4
	2008–09 [6]	League One	36	9	1	1	1	0	1 [b]	0	39	10
	2009–10 [7]	League One	28	3	3	0	1	0	3 [c]	0	35	3
	Total		173	19	12	2	5	0	7	1	197	22
Scunthorpe United	2010–11 [26]	Championship	32	1	1	1	3	1	—		36	3
	2011–12 [27]	League One	1	0	0	0	1	0	1 [b]	0	3	0
	2012–13 [28]	League One	29	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	30	1
	2013–14 [29]	League Two	17	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	20	0
	Total		79	2	4	1	5	1	1	0	89	4
AFC Wimbledon (loan)	2013–14 [29]	League Two	9	0	—		—		—		9	0
Oxford United	2014–15 [30]	League Two	39	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	43	2
	2015–16 [31]	League Two	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total		39	2	2	0	2	0	0	0	43	2
York City (loan)	2015–16 [31]	League Two	7	0	1	0	—		2 [b]	0	10	0
Bengaluru	2015–16 [32]	I-League	10	0			—		6 [d]	0	16	0
Leyton Orient	2016–17 [33]	League Two	30	0	0	0	—		1 [e]	0	31	0
F.C. Halifax Town	2017–18 [32]	National League	22	0	—		—		1 [f]	0	23	0
Career total			369	23	19	3	12	1	18	1	418	28

1. Appearances in FA Cup
2. Appearance(s) in Football League Trophy
3. Two appearances in Football League Trophy, one in League One play-offs
4. Appearances in AFC Cup
5. Appearance in EFL Trophy
6. Appearance in FA Trophy

Managerial statistics

As of match played 1 September 2018

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record								Ref
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Bradford City		18 June 2018	3 September 2018	7	2	1	4	5	9	−4	028.57	[34]
Career Total				7	2	1	4	5	9	−4	028.57	—

Honours

Scunthorpe United

• Football League Two runner-up: 2013–14 ^[32]

Bengaluru

• I-League: 2015–16 ^[32]

References

1. Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2010). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010–11. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. p. 91. ISBN   978-1-84596-601-0.
2. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2004/2005". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
3. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
4. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2006/2007". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
5. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2007/2008". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
6. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
7. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
8. Thomson, Doug (25 May 2010). "Michael Collins heads list of Town players made available for transfer". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
9. "Scunthorpe sign Huddersfield midfielder Michael Collins". BBC Sport. 6 July 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
10. "Dons sign Michael Collins". AFC Wimbledon. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
11. "Michael Collins: Oxford United sign former Scunthorpe midfielder". BBC Sport. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
12. Flett, Dave (2 October 2015). "Oxford midfielder Michael Collins joins York City on loan". The Press. York. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
13. "Michael Collins moves on". Oxford United F.C. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
14. "I-League: Bengaluru FC sign Joshua Walker replacement". Goal.com. 21 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
15. Jitendran, Nikhil (21 May 2016). "AFC Cup – Bengaluru FC's Michael Collins: 'I genuinely believe that we have the best team in the I-League'". Goal.com. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
16. "Michael Collins: Leyton Orient sign former Huddersfield Town midfielder". BBC Sport. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
17. Sessions, George (9 June 2017). "Michael Collins: There is too much uncertainty at Leyton Orient for me to stay". Docklands & East London Advertiser. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
18. "Michael Collins: FC Halifax sign experienced midfielder until the end of the season". BBC Sport. 9 December 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
19. "Former Bantams boss Michael Collins debuts for Alfreton in 7-1 hiding". Bradford Telegraph and Argus.
20. "Michael Collins". SoccerScene.ie. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
21. "Bantams recruit coaching trio". Bradford City A.F.C. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
22. "Michael Collins: Bradford City appoint former under-18s boss as head coach". BBC Sport. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
23. "BANTAMS NOSTALGIA: Great start but it quickly turned sour for Collins". Bradford Telegraph and Argus.
24. "BANTAMS PART COMPANY WITH COLLINS". www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk.
25. Watts, Simon (16 October 2016). "'Out of Contract': Sky Sports Originals follows five footballers in search of a club". Sky Sport. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
26. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2010/2011". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
27. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
28. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2012/2013". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
29. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
30. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
31. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
32. "M. Collins: Summary". Soccerway. Perform Group. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
33. "Games played by Michael Collins in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
34. "2018–19 Bradford Fixtures & Results". Soccerbase. Retrieved 18 June 2018.

External links

• Michael Collins profile at the Football Association of Ireland website
• Michael Collins at Soccerbase