Michael Collins (footballer born 1986)

Michael Collins

Personal information
Full name	Michael Anthony Collins
Date of birth	30 April 1986 (1986-04-30) (age 25)
Place of birth	Halifax, England
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position	Defender / Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Scunthorpe United
Number	18
Youth career
	Huddersfield Town
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2004–2010	Huddersfield Town	173	(19)
2010–	Scunthorpe United	23	(1)
National team‡
2003	Republic of Ireland U18	1	(1)
2003–2005	Republic of Ireland U19
2007–2008	Republic of Ireland U21	6	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 11:14, 11 March 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of July 6, 2010

Michael Anthony Collins (born 30 April 1986 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England) is a professional footballer currently playing for Scunthorpe United in the Football League Championship. Collins has been capped six times by the Republic of Ireland U21 side.

Career

Huddersfield Town

Early career

Having come through Huddersfield Town's academy, Collins made his first team debut in 2004 in a 1–0 home win over Blackpool on 19 February 2004. Collins made 8 appearances in his first season with The Terriers with 7 of them being starts.

Collins made his first start of the 2005/06 season coming on as a 90th minute substitute in a 3–1 home win over Swansea City on 13 August 2005. His first start came in a 4–2 away win in the League Cup over Chesterfield on 24 August 2005, his first goal came on 18 February 2006 in a 5–0 win over Milton Keynes Dons.

Collins came off the bench in the FA Cup Third Round tie in January 2006 against Premier League champions Chelsea, and set-up Gary Taylor-Fletcher for an equaliser.

Collins made 21 appearances in all competitions for The Terriers in his second season at the club.

2006–07 season

Collins made his first appearance of the 2006/07 season on the opening day of the season coming on in the 65th minute in a 2–1 away defeat away at Gillingham. Collins made his first start of the season in a 2–0 defeat to Mansfield Town at home in the first round of the League Cup on 22 August 2006.

His first league start of the season on 26 August 2006 in a 1–1 draw at home with Nottingham Forest. Collins scored his first goal for the season in a 2–1 away win over Port Vale on 21 October 2006. His second came in a 3–2 away win at Rotherham United on 20 February 2007. Collins went on to score in the last two games of the season 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.

Collins finished the season 46 appearances in all competitions starting 41 with 5 coming of the bench, scoring 4 goals during the 2006/07 season.

2007–08 season

He scored his first league goal of the 2007–08 season in Huddersfield's 2–0 win over Yeovil Town at Huish Park on 2 February 2008.

During the 2007–08 season, Huddersfield manager Andy Ritchie tended to use Collins as cover in right-back and right-midfield positions, but he mainly tends to use Collins in tandem with Andy Holdsworth in Town's central midfield.

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. It was only the second goal of the season for Collins.

2008–09 season

After being left out of the first team squad the for most of the first part of the season by manager Stan Ternent, he was re-called to the side by caretaker manger Gerry Murphy to play in the FA Cup First Round tie at home to Port Vale. Collins scored Huddersfield's equalizer, but he was unable to prevent them losing 4–3. A week later Collins, scored his first Football League goal of the 2008–09 season, in the match at Elland Road against local rivals Leeds United. Collins went on to score 10 goals for the season from midfield.

2009–10 season

Collins gained a red card in Huddersfield's first game of the season away at Southend United. His first goal of the season came in the 65 minute of Huddersfield's 2–1 home victory over Yeovil Town on 29 August 2009. He also scored goals in Huddersfield's 4–0 victory over Leyton Orient and the 3–3 draw with Tranmere Rovers at the Galpharm Stadium.

Collins was ruled out for the remainder of the 2009–10 season on 5 April 2010, following surgery on a broken finger, but he returned as a substitute in the 2–1 defeat at Exeter City. He then came on as an 88th minute substitute in the first leg of Huddersfield's Play-off semi-final match with Millwall, and was a unused sub in the second leg defeat at the New Den on 18 May 2010. Collins started 26 games with a further six substitute appearances in the 2009–10 season, scoring three goals.

Collins along with six other players was added to the transfer list by manager Lee Clark on 24 May 2010. On 25 June 2010 it was confirmed that Scunthorpe United were interested in signing the midfielder, and Collins joined Scunthorpe on 6 July 2010 for an undisclosed fee.

Collins made a total of 164 starts for the Club with a further 33 appearances as a substitute, scoring 22 goals since joining form the academy in 2004 until he left in 2010.

Scunthorpe United

Collins joined Football League Championship side Scunthorpe United on July 6, 2010 for an undisclosed fee from the Terriers.^[1]

International career

Qualifying through to the parentage rule, Collins made his international debut in a Republic of Ireland U18 game in April 2003. He was the captain of the Irish under-19 squad and on 14 March 2007, he got his first call-up to the Irish Under-21 squad for a match against Netherlands Under-21's. However, he was forced to withdraw from the squad after picking up a shoulder injury in a league game against Brighton & Hove Albion.

He made his Ireland under-21 debut against Germany's under-21's in a friendly match at the Playmobil-Stadion in Fürth on 21 August 2007. His home debut came against Portugal's under-21's at the Turners Cross Stadium in Cork on 7 September 2007.

On 15 May 2008, he scored his first goals for the Ireland Under-21's in a 3–1 win over Malaysia Under-23's in an Intercontinental Cup match in Malaysia. Collins made six appearances scoring twice between 2007–2008.

References

1. ^ http://www.htafc.com/page/NewsDetail/0,,10312~2085439,00.html

External links

• Michael Collins player profile at htafc.com
• Michael Collins career stats at Soccerbase

Persondata
Name	Collins, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	30 April 1986
Place of birth	Halifax, England
Date of death
Place of death