SAM COLLINS’ HIGH HOPES FOR YORK
Collins gets big chance at York
SAM COLLINS reckons the National League North title is not out of York City’s reach this season, but warns their promotion push won’t happen overnight.
The former Huddersfield, Bury, Port Vale, Hull and Hartlepool centre-back was finally handed the City reins on a permanent basis last week after being in caretaker charge since August, and has led York back up the table.
If the ambitions of the club weren’t clear enough, then the sacking of Martin Gray after taking just seven points from their first five games showed the Minstermen meant business.
Collins, appointed as York’s youth-team coach in July, stepped up to fill the void while the board began their search for a successor and quietly set about steadying the ship with four wins, three draws and one loss from eight matches landing him the full-time job.
Freedom
“You are on trial, as such, but I never worried about that,” Collins told The NLP about his role as caretaker. “All the way through it I just tried to do what I thought was right for the football club, the players and for myself.
“I’ve been involved in football for 20-odd years. I like to think I understand what it’s all about. It was just using that experience and knowledge to try and do it in whatever way I thought was right. If it didn’t work out then so be it. Luckily enough things have gone quite well.”
Collins was the obvious stand-in having acted as caretaker boss at Hartlepool on three occasions in the last four years.
Caretaker managers are often un-sung heroes, left to pick up the pieces amid what is usually a crisis on the pitch. Few get the chance to carry on their work.
“It’s always quite difficult because more often than not when you go into that role it’s on the end of a manager losing his job,” explained the 41-year-old. “There’s always different reasons behind that, whoever’s been the manager there’ll be players who have been playing and others that have been out of the picture. The team might have been on a bad run so they’re low on confidence.
“There’s all these things to deal with but what I’ve always tried to do is to think about it from a player’s point of view, even though I have my own ideas and own thoughts, I try to be on their wavelength.
“What is it that they want? What do they need? Try and get all the players onside and give them a little bit of confidence, a bit of freedom and let them express themselves without worrying about what could go wrong. You’re obviously hoping that results go well and you like to think that the club is going to come to you and offer you the role.”
Collins’ first management role has been a long time coming after coaching for 13 years at all different levels from kids to men.
He’s worked alongside the likes of Ronnie Moore, the former Tranmere manager, and ex-Scotland midfielder Stuart McCall, but now he’s got his big break at the former Football League stalwart.
York have had a miserable time in Non-League after relegation from League Two was followed by a second one in succession, although an FA Trophy win at Wembley did provide a crumb of comfort.
Things, though, appear to be looking up with a new stadium to be moved into next year while Collins has lifted the side back into the promotion hunt.
“I like to think I’ve done my apprenticeship in coaching,” he says. “We can now start to implement our ideas even more, short and long term plans in terms of the team, the squad, things in and around the training ground where we think we can develop it even better.
Infrastructure
“It’s a really good club with its infrastructure and going into a new stadium next year. Everything’s there. We can really start putting over how we want things to be done. “I don’t think the title is out of reach. We’ve got to kick on now and try to put a team out that everyone enjoys coming to watch. Most importantly a team that is winning matches. “We want to try and get out of this league and get back in the Football League but it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. This league is not easy by any means. If we do the right things and work hard then we’ve got a chance. “We all know that there’s a hell of a long way to go. One of the key things is being in and around it by Christmas. The games come thick and fast but it’s important that you don’t look too far ahead. We just focus on winning the next game and making sure we do all the right things.”