Danny Collins

Daniel Lewis Collins (born 6 August 1980) is a former professional footballer who played as a centre back.

Collins made his Stoke debut in a 2–1 defeat at home to Chelsea in the following match against Bolton Wanderers Stoke were leading up until the 88th minute when Collins fouled Sam Ricketts in the penalty area costing Stoke three points.

Collins started his career in the Welsh leagues with Mold Alexandra and Buckley Town before joining Chester City in 1996.

In the 1999 season, he played two matches, taking two wickets at an average of 37.50 and scoring 14 runs at an average of 7.00.

After having trials with Wrexham and Tranmere Rovers, he signed for Chester City in December 2001, who were playing in the Conference.

Before turning professional, Collins played cricket for Wales Minor Counties during the football close season.

Collins made his debut for Chester in a 3–1 defeat against Northwich Victoria on boxing day 2001.

In just under three years he made over 70 appearances for Chester.

It was after a successful spell on loan at Vauxhall Motors that his career started to take off, having been converted from an unconvincing forward into a composed central defender.

His first two seasons at Chester saw him make 20 appearances; during the 2002–03 season he went on loan to non-league side Vauxhall Motors.

Following his return to Chester, Collins became a regular in the side and produced some fine performances which attracted the attention of Sunderland who bought him for £140,000.

Collins spent five years in the North East making over 150 appearances and earning two promotions to the Premier League during that time.

His time at Vauxhalls included helping them surprisingly knock Queens Park Rangers out of the FA Cup in November 2002.

The following season saw Collins miss just one game as Chester won the Football Conference title and returned to the Football League after a four-year absence.

Although Chester had a mixed start to the 2004–05 season, Collins continued to impress and a stoppage time goal against Macclesfield Town gave Chester their first win of the season on 4 September 2004.

A month later he joined Sunderland for £140,000 amid interest from other clubs including Sheffield United whose manager Neil Warnock hit out at the way Chester handled his transfer to Sunderland.

He ended the 2004–05 season with another championship medal and full Welsh caps to his name, he was initially used as a backup player to defenders Gary Breen, Steven Caldwell and George McCartney, in his first season at the club, but still managed to make 14 appearances.

Following promotion to the Premier League for the 2005–06 season, Sunderland signed several additional players and Collins found himself out of the first team squad early in the season.

He later worked his way into the side but Sunderland endured a nightmare campaign and were comfortably relegated amassing just 15 points.

Collins started the 2006–07 season as first choice defender at Sunderland, but was dropped four games into the season after being booed by a section of the crowd following a mistake in the previous game against Plymouth Argyle.

Collins later regained his place following the arrival of manager Roy Keane and won another championship medal come the end of the season.

On 15 December Collins scored a late last minute goal against Aston Villa which would have led to the Black Cats victory but referee Steve Bennett denied the goal for a foul on Scott Carson, the foul was not apparent and the goal should have stood.

Manager Roy Keane was very angry at the decision and said that Bennett had cheated Sunderland and went as far as to say "the players deserve better."

He went on to firmly establish himself as a first team regular at Sunderland, starting 32 games in the 2007–08 season.

On 5 April 2008, Collins scored Sunderland's first goal in their 3–1 over Fulham at Craven Cottage despite again having a goal disallowed earlier in the game.

He won the Fans' Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009.

On 29 August it was reported that Sunderland had accepted a bid from Stoke City for Collins (despite this, he was an unused substitute when the two sides played each other the next day) As expected, he signed for Stoke on 1 September for £2.75 million rising to £3.5 million.

In August 2009 Collins joined Stoke City for £2.75 million and played at left back for the "Potters".

On 30 January 2009, Collins was rewarded with a new two-and-a-half-year contract by Sunderland, keeping him at the club until at least the end of the 2010–11 season.

Collins struggled to establish himself at left back during the 2009–10 season often rotating with Danny Higginbotham.

Collins begun the 2010–11 season in good form and has stated that he needs to keep performing well if he is to hold his left back position."There is a lot of competition here now in every area on the pitch, so the lads who are playing at the moment, like myself, know we have to keep performing. If we don't then there are options there for the manager to change things" However, he again struggled and was dropped back to the bench with Higginbotham and Marc Wilson being preferred at left back.

After losing his place in the squad he joined Ipswich Town on loan in September 2011 and then West Ham United in March 2012.

Collins was left out Stoke's 25-man Premier League squad by manager Tony Pulis for the 2011–12 season.

Collins joined Ipswich Town on a three-month loan deal from Stoke City on 9 September 2011.

He played in 16 Championship matches for Ipswich scoring three goals before returning to Stoke.

He signed for Nottingham Forest in July 2012 before having a short stint with Rotherham United from 2015 to 2016.

His final club were Grimsby Town where he spent three seasons and became club captain rounding of his spell with the club by making 106 league appearances.

He announced his retirement in December 2019 having been released by Grimsby the previous summer.

He has also been capped for England C on six occasions before being called up to the Welsh national side.

He began his career in the Cymru Alliance with local sides Mold Alexandra and Buckley Town.