Reformed Collins eyes Ireland call as reward for staying on track

CHELTENHAM is around the corner but James Collins is one footballer that definitely won’t be attending. This March, the 28-year-old might just have better things to be doing. If the Luton striker gets a call-up from Mick McCarthy next Thursday, then he will be achieving his mission to make the news pages for the right reasons. Three years after his lowest moment, he’s in contention for what would represent a career high.

He actually couldn’t go racing if he wanted to. Collins is banned for life for his inappropriate behaviour on a boozy day at the Festival which he thoroughly regrets, but was told he could have appealed it 12 months ago. “I’ve never bothered doing that,” he shrugs.

He has moved on from a story which might ring a bell. Collins and his ex-Aston Villa team-mate Samir Carruthers – both former Irish underage internationals – were captured relieving themselves in a glass that was poured over the edge of a balcony at the track.

Classic footballers behaving badly fodder. He’s well able to speak about it now. Before Christmas, an entertaining and podcast chat with his former Hibs team-mate Owain Tudor-Jones ran through all of the details.

They spoke of a ‘new James Collins’, an older and wiser version of a popular professional with a personality and a few stories to tell. That was exactly how he came across at Luton’s training ground on Thursday afternoon.

He’s always enjoyed a “laugh and a joke” and admits to mistakes in his youth, when he did have a bit of a daft streak. The other entry on his rap sheet is the fact he was a passenger in a car driven by an over-thelimit Barry Bannan when it was involved in a motorway smash back in 2011. Collins was cleared of any wrongdoing, but add that to Cheltenham and it builds a deceptive profile. Canvassing opinions on the striker brings back positive results. Ex-LOI goalkeeper Dave Henderson was with Pat Fenlon when they brought Collins to Hibs, and remembers a hard worker that never gave them any hassle. He was signed from Swindon, where he actually relished and enjoyed Paolo Di Canio’s eccentric and tough regime.

Cheltenham painted another picture. The devil was in the incorrect details. Yes, he was in an overcrowded box packed with footballers, hangers on and so-called celebs’ – a glamour model and a ‘Love Island’ contestant added to the chaos by flashing for the snappers. Drinks were taken. Toilets were several furlongs away.

Evasive action was taken with the help of a pint glass, and the contents were dumped over a balcony. The actions were caught on cameras that were – as Collins puts it – hoping to catch a glimpse of higher-profile stars.

A striker on loan from Shrewsbury to Northampton Town was hardly a prime target. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, being silly,” he says.

The pictures went viral. Collins was notified before he went to bed that night, which had a sobering effect. Newspaper reporters tracked his fiancée Georgia down at her parents’ house.

He had to hold his hands up and accept he was irresponsible; but the worst part of the story was the implication that punters were below the balcony. “That’s taking it too far,” he sighs.

A grass lawn was below their slightly elevated box, so there were no unwelcome showers It didn’t excuse their behaviour but it puts a different slant on their crime. Collins accepted the punishment and released a statement where he acknowledged that he had ‘emphasised the negative stereotype of the modern footballer.’

Northampton boss Chris Wilder stood by him and picked Collins the following weekend. He scored too. But he was only a loan player and suspected an uncertain summer lay ahead, even though he helped Northampton win promotion.

“I still had a year left at Shrewsbury but they wanted to go another way,” he says. “I was pretty much free to leave. After a story like that, there’s not many teams that want to take a chance on you. It affected me.”

Georgia had given birth to their first child, Cooper, but Collins – who currently commutes to Luton from their home in the Midlands – had to move away on his own to Crawley Town

“I had to start again, basically. I had to get my head down, stay away from all the rubbish and get my name back out there. I scored 22 goals (his best season). The club stayed up, and that led to Nathan Jones signing me for Luton which has probably been my best decision.”

Heads have turned. Collins is top of the League One charts with 19 this term and Robbie Keane came to watch him last month. That was “surreal” for a childhood Coventry fan who remembers going along to Highfield Road with his father Steve to watch a young Keane light it up under Gordon Strachan.

Collins qualifies for Ireland through his mother Rose Shanley who moved over from Mullingar as a child. They visited an uncle there in his youth, long before he was capped at U-19 and U-21 level. He’s excited to be in contention for the big call.

Assistant boss Terry Connor will watch him play against Rochdale today. Caretaker boss and club legend Mick Harford has spoken with Keane and offered a strong endorsement. Around a club that has undergone its own rebirth, dropping out of the league before making a comeback that now sees them sitting on the brink of the Championship, they are rooting for him.

Dubliner Alan McCormack, a 35-yearold who has met a variety of different characters in a 17-year career up and down the divisions, describes Collins as one of the best professionals that he has worked with. He has pointed to his diet, a discipline around the dinner table that has inspired older pros.

Alan Sheehan, a 32-year-old from Athlone that has been around the scene for a decade and a half, followed his team-mate’s plan and lost 10lbs in the space of six weeks. Collins traces those good eating habits back to meeting with Darren Ward, a senior figure at Swindon.

“I’ve never had serious injuries and a lot of that is down to looking after your body and being professional,” he says, before running through his intake on a day that started with a black coffee. “No milk or sugar,” he stresses. That was followed with a bowl of porridge with honey and banana. Two boiled eggs with avocado is another favourite. After training, there’s chicken and a small portion of rice with some veg. No sauce.

“The main thing for me is cutting the sugar out of my diet,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a saint. I like a glass of wine, and a beer now and again. It’s just doing it in moderation.”

He laughs as he reflects on the early days when he lacked that focus.. As a teenager at Villa, there were loan spells at Steve Staunton’s doomed Darlington and Burton Albion. Collins didn’t take life too seriously at that point, but shared dressing rooms with older players worrying about mortgages and families and all the commitments that he understands now.

He did leave home at 16, living in the digs house of former Villa winger Tony Daley, so there was a degree of independence within a pampered Premier League environment.

Villa were competing at the right end of the table under Martin O’Neill when he was taken into the manager’s office and told that his future lay elsewhere. That set him off on a journey that has featured four promotions and a few disappointments. Hibs was one. He enjoyed working with Fenlon and points out the club was in a good position when he left. Under his replacement Terry Butcher, morale plummeted and Hibs were relegated, barricaded inside the building by angry fans. Collins, a £200,000 buy from Swindon who wasn’t picked for the play-off, was south of the border by the time some colleagues escaped.

Luton is a club firmly heading in the right way, with results holding up despite the loss of Jones to Stoke. There’s an energy around their base near the airport which is palpable.

“We want to get that Championship status,” he asserts. “I’ve always felt deep down that I could play in the Championship but I’ve never managed it.”

With his body in good shape, he looks at late developers like Glenn Murray as an inspiration. As a family man, he’s got firm reasons to be motivated. Cooper is three and has figured out what his father does for a living. His daughter London Lula is six months old and the wider Collins clan are a familiar presence at games home and away. They’ll be travelling to Ireland too if McCarthy delivers good news.

“My mum can’t believe that it could happen. My dad is a bit more quiet. They’ll be two proud people (if a call comes). They’ve been through everything with me, the promotions, the relegations, the good stories and the bad ones, they deserve it as much as anyone really.”

Collins’ last trip to Dublin was for Luton’s Christmas party. They went unnoticed in their festive jumpers.

If all goes to plan, there will be a lot more eyes on him for his next visit.