Neill Collins

Queen's Park

Collins was born in Troon, Scotland. He was associated with Kilmarnock's youth academy, the team he supported as a boy before being released at the age of 14. He began his career with Scottish amateur club, Queen's Park, making his first-team debut in a 2–0 win at Stirling Albion on 24 March 2001. He went on to make four appearances in the 2000–01 season as John McCormack's Spiders were relegated from the Second Division to the Third Division. He played 31 games as Queen's Park finished bottom of the Scottish Football League in 2001–02. During this time he worked at a Safeway supermarket.

Dumbarton

Collins earned a move to newly-promoted Second Division club Dumbarton in July 2002. During his stay at the Strathclyde Homes Stadium, Collins became popular with the fans and had a spell as captain and was key to Paul Martin's Sons battle to stay in the Second Division in 2002–03. He then featured 34 times as Dumbarton finished two points outside the promotion places in 2003–04 under Brian Fairley's stewardship. During his time there he had trials with Falkirk, Hibernian, Rangers and Charlton Athletic. During his time in Scotland he also completed a BA 'Sport in the Community' degree at the University of Strathclyde.

Sunderland

Collins was signed by Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy in August 2004 for a fee of £25,000. Three months later he signed a new contract to keep him at the Stadium of Light until 2007. He made 11 appearances during…

Collins won seven caps at Scotland under-21 level. On 20 November 2007, he played for Scotland B in a 1–1 draw with Republic of Ireland B at the Excelsior Stadium; he came on as a substitute for Darren Dods at half-time.

Tampa Bay Rowdies

On 18 May 2018, Collins was promoted to manager at the Tampa Bay Rowdies after he impressed chairman Bill Edwards with his intensity and work ethic. The Rowdies went on to finish the 2018 season 12th in the USL Eastern Conference table under difficult circumstances, with Collins commenting that "We had players retiring for a variety of reasons, guys getting serious injuries, other off-field problems, it was one thing after another." They finished fifth in the 2019 season, before losing 2–1 to Louisville City FC in the Conference quarter-finals. The Rowdies finished top of the table in the 2020 season, which was brought to an early end and decided on points per game due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The play-offs continued and Tampa made it to the Championship final against Phoenix Rising FC. However, the final was cancelled the day before it was due to be played because several Tampa Bay Rowdies players and staff tested positive for COVID-19; the championship would not be awarded. Collins was named USL Championship Coach of the Year after his team achieved 23 wins to top the Eastern Conference in the 2021 regular season. He was also named as Coach of the Month for April / May and September, having achieved 100% win records in both periods and setting a league record of 891 minutes without conceding a goal. In the playoffs, Tampa defeated FC Tulsa, Birmingham Legion FC and Louisville City FC, before falling to a 3–1 defeat to Orange…

Writing in The Guardian in 2007, Steve Claridge compared Collins to Tony Adams, describing him as "strong and robust" with good positional and organisation skills. Collins described heading as the strongest part of his game.