DOUGIE COLLINS

Born: 28 August 1948

Came from: Burnley   Went to: Sunderland

First game: 14 August 1976   Last game: 05 March 1977

Appearances: 25 (24/1)   Goals: 2

Born in Newton in Derbyshire, Collins served his apprenticeship with Rotherham United but failed to make the grade. He moved on to Grimsby Town, where he made his League debut in 1963, and went on to make just over a century of appearances in a five-year spell. Moving to Burnley in 1968, he had a successful spell with the Lancashire club, making 187 appearances and scoring 18 goals. It was from Turf Moor that he moved to Home Park after eight top-flight seasons in claret and blue, arriving in Devon in the summer of 1976 as a Tony Waiters' signing. In just one season at Home Park he only appeared on a winning side five times and left the club shortly after his last appearance in March 1977 to sign for Sunderland for whom he made six appearances during the closing stages of that season. As was prevalent at the time, he then accepted an offer from the USA to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) for Tulsa Roughnecks for whom records show he played five times. He then returned to England for the 1978-79 season after accepting an offer to become player-manager of Rochdale and during this spell he made eight League appearances for the Spotland club. However, after being replaced by the eminently more experienced Bob Stokoe (who had managed the club before) he left and moved to Australia as coach with Sydney Olympic, Marconi and Wollongong City, all in the National Soccer League (NSL).