Bobby Collins (footballer)

Robert Young Collins (16 February 1931 – 13 January 2014) was a Scotland international football player, best known for his successful spells at Celtic, Everton and Leeds United.^[5]

Bobby Collins

Personal information
Full name	Robert Young Collins[1]
Date of birth	(1931-02-16)16 February 1931
Place of birth	Govanhill, Glasgow, Scotland
Date of death	13 January 2014(2014-01-13) (aged 82)
Place of death	Leeds, England
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Polmadie Hawthorn Juveniles
	Pollok
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1949–1958	Celtic	220	(81)
1958–1962	Everton	133	(42)
1960	→ Southern Suburbs (loan)
1962–1967	Leeds United	149	(24)
1967–1969	Bury	75	(6)
1969–1971	Greenock Morton	55	(3)
1971	Ringwood City	6	(0)
1972	Melbourne Hakoah
1972	Ringwood City
1972–1973	Oldham Athletic	7	(0)
1973–1974	Shamrock Rovers	11	(1)
Total		650+	(157+)
International career
1950–1965	Scotland	31	(10)
1951–1958	Scottish League XI	16	(12)
1958[2]	SFL trial v SFA	1	(0)
1959–1960[3][4]	SFA trial v SFL	2	(0)
Managerial career
1974-1975	Huddersfield Town
1977–1978	Hull City
1984–1985	Barnsley
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Celtic

Collins was born on 16 February 1931 in Govanhill, Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest of Tom and Bella Collins's six children.^[6] He signed a contract with Everton from Pollok at the age of 17, but after a contractual dispute he eventually ended up joining Celtic instead of Everton; he was also working as an apprentice cobbler at the time.^[7] He made his debut at outside-right against Old Firm rivals Rangers on 13 August 1949, getting the better of Jock Shaw he helped Celtic to a 3–2 Scottish League Cup victory.^[8] Despite being just about 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) tall, Collins was a strong, hard-working midfield player who was in the Celtic team as a 17-year-old and stayed there for ten years, winning the Scottish Cup in 1951, and the Scottish cup double in 1954. Affectionately known as the Wee Barra by Celtic fans, he was idolised by three generations of supporters.^{[citation needed]} The grandfathers loved his throwback style of keeping the ball close, the dads loved his all-out action style and the kids just wanted to play like him.^{[citation needed]} He was also called up for international duty in 1950, and maintained a frequent presence in the Scotland squad in the later stages of the decade. Collins also represented the Scottish League XI 16 times, scoring 12 goals.^[9]

Everton

In 1958 Collins joined Everton where he played until 1962.^[10]

Leeds United

Collins was an astute addition to the Leeds squad by manager Don Revie in 1962, helping the club avoid relegation. Revie later described Collins as his best ever signing.^[11] Leeds won promotion to the First Division in 1964, and Collins captained the side towards a potential League and FA Cup double a year later; however, Leeds missed out on the League on goal average to Manchester United, and lost the 1965 FA Cup Final to Liverpool. Collins's achievements at Leeds were recognised when he was awarded the Footballer of the Year title in 1965. His sparkling form at Leeds also won him a recall to the Scotland squad after a six-year absence, and he earned three more caps. His international career ended with 31 appearances and ten goals. Collins continued to skipper Leeds until 1966, when he suffered a horrific broken thighbone in a Fairs Cup tie against Torino. He briefly came back from the injury, but age and a struggle to reclaim previous form brought his Leeds career to an end.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}

Later playing career

Bury signed Collins and he stayed there for two years.^[10]

During a short period back in his native Scotland with Greenock Morton, he doubled up as a scout for Revie, and recommended Joe Jordan. Jordan went on to become a respected and feared striker with Leeds, Manchester United, Milan and Scotland. Collins' last appearance for Morton was in August 1971, in a pre-season friendly against his former club Leeds United.

In 1972 Collins was playing coach of Australian club Ringwood City but left after a disagreement with the club board.^[18]

He then had a spell as player-coach with Oldham.

Collins guested for Shamrock Rovers in a friendly with Manchester United at Dalymount Park on 15 October 1973 and signed for The Hoops the following month making his début on the 11th at Glenmalure Park. He played a total of 13 games, 11 in the league scoring once on his second appearance at Finn Harps.^[12]

Managerial career

Collins went into management, with spells at Huddersfield Town, Hull City and Barnsley. He also coached within the Leeds youth set-up in the 1970s and then again in the late 1990s.^[19]

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	Division	League		National cup		League cup		Other[lower-alpha 1]		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Celtic	1949–50	Scottish First Division	26	7	4	0	6	1	2	0	38	8
	1950–51	Scottish First Division	27	15	7	2	8	3	5	0	47	20
	1951–52	Scottish First Division	30	12	2	0	8	1	2	3	42	16
	1952–53	Scottish First Division	14	3	5	0	0	0	2	0	21	3
	1953–54	Scottish First Division	25	10	0	0	4	0	4	0	33	10
	1954–55	Scottish First Division	20	5	7	1	2	1	1	0	30	7
	1955–56	Scottish First Division	26	4	4	4	6	3	4	2	40	13
	1956–57	Scottish First Division	20	5	6	2	11	4	2	0	39	11
	1957–58	Scottish First Division	30	19	3	1	10	7	3	0	46	27
	1958–59	Scottish First Division	2	1	0	0	7	6	1	0	10	7
	Total		220	81	38	10	62	26	26	5	346	122
Everton	1958–59	First Division	32	7	4	3	—		0	0	36	10
	1959–60	First Division	42	14	1	0	—		0	0	43	14
	1960–61	First Division	40	16	1	0	5	1	0	0	46	17
	1961–62	First Division	19	5	3	2	0	0	0	0	22	7
	Total		133	42	9	5	5	1	0	0	147	48
Leeds United	1961–62	Second Division	11	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	11	1
	1962–63	Second Division	41	8	3	1	0	0	0	0	44	9
	1963–64	Second Division	41	6	2	0	1	0	0	0	44	6
	1964–65	First Division	39	9	8	0	1	1	0	0	48	10
	1965–66	First Division	10	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	12	0
	1966–67	First Division	7	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	9	0
	Total		149	24	13	1	2	1	4	0	168	26
Bury	1966–67	Second Division	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	0
	1967–68	Third Division	43	4	3	1	4	0	0	0	50	5
	1968–69	Second Division	22	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	24	2
	Total		75	6	3	1	4	0	0	0	84	7
Greenock Morton	1969–70	Scottish First Division	28	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	30	2
	1970–71	Scottish First Division	27	1	1	0	0	0	4	0	32	1
	Total		55	3	3	0	0	0	4	0	62	3
Oldham Athletic	1972–73	Third Division	7	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	9	1
Shamrock Rovers	1973–74	League of Ireland	11	1	2	0	0	0	—		13	1
Career total[20]			650	157	70	18	73	28	34	5	827	208

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Scotland	1950	3	0
	1955	5	0
	1956	1	0
	1957	8	4
	1958	7	5
	1959	4	1
	1965	3	0
Total[21]		30	10

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Collins goal.

List of international goals scored by Bobby Collins

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	19 May 1957	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Switzerland	2–1	2–1	1958 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	22 May 1957	Neckarstadion, Stuttgart, West Germany	West Germany	1–0	3–1	Friendly
3				3–0
4	13 November 1957	Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland	Wales	1–0	1–1	1958 British Home Championship
5	1 June 1958	Dziesieciolecia Stadion, Warsaw, Poland	Poland	1–0	2–1	Friendly
6				2–1
7	11 June 1958	Idrottsparken, Norrköping, Sweden	Paraguay	2–3	2–3	1958 FIFA World Cup
8	18 October 1958	Ninian Park, Cardiff, Wales	Wales	3–0	3–0	1959 British Home Championship
9	5 November 1958	Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland	Northern Ireland	2–0	2–2	British Home Championship
10	27 May 1959	Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	1–1	2–1	Friendly

Managerial record

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	From	To	Record
			P	W	D	L	Win %
Huddersfield Town	3 July 1974	23 December 1974	23	7	4	12	030.4
Hull City	1 October 1977	10 February 1978	25	6	8	11	024.0
Barnsley	8 February 1984	25 June 1985	65	24	19	22	036.9
Total[22]			113	37	31	45	032.7

Honours

Celtic^[23]

• Glasgow Cup: 1950, 1956; runner-up 1951, 1952
• Scottish Cup: 1951; runner-up 1955
• Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup: 1953; runner-up 1951, 1954
• Scottish Football League First Division: 1953–54; runner-up 1954–55
• Scottish League Cup: 1957, 1958

Leeds United^[23]

• Football League Second Division: 1963–64
• FA Cup runner-up: 1964–65^[24]

Bury^[23]

• Football League Third Division runner-up: 1967–68

Individual

• FWA Footballer of the Year: 1964–65

Notes

1. Includes other competitive competitions, including the Glasgow Cup, Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and Texaco Cup.

References

1. "Bobby Collins". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
2. Scottish trial match at Easter Road Archived 9 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Glasgow Herald, 4 February 1958
3. The selectors still have problems Archived 20 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The Bulletin, 17 March 1959
4. Ronnie McDevitt (2016). Scotland in the 60s: The Definitive Account of the Scottish National Football Side During the 1960s. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 9781785312458.^{[permanent dead link]}
5. "BOBBY COLLINS". Leeds United. 13 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
6. Saffer 2004, p. 11
7. Saffer 2004, p. 16
8. Saffer 2004, p. 17
9. "SFL player Robert Young Collins". London Hearts Supporters' Club. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
10. "Collins, Robert Young". allfootballers.com. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
11. Bobby Collins Obituary, The Guardian 14 January 2014
12. "Bobby Collins". neilbrown.newcastlefans.com. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
13. "Bobby Collins Part 1 – An appreciation". mightyleeds.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
14. "Bobby Collins Part 2 – Home grown hero". mightyleeds.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
15. "Bobby Collins Part 3 – From Sweden to Liverpool". mightyleeds.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
16. "Bobby Collins Part 4 – Back from the dead". mightyleeds.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
17. "Bobby Collins Part 5 – End of the line". mightyleeds.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
18. "Collins, Robert Young". Australian Player Database. OzFootball. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
19. O'Henley, Alex (14 January 2014). "'Inspirational' Scot Collins mourned". UEFA. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
20. Saffer 2004, pp. 188–90
21. Saffer 2004, pp. 186–87
22. Bobby Collins management career statistics at Soccerbase
23. Saffer 2004, p. 191
24. Vernon, Leslie; Rollin, Jack (1977). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1977–78. London: Brickfield Publications Ltd. p. 490. ISBN 0354 09018 6.

Sources

• Doolan, Paul; Goggins, robert (1993). The Hoops. Gill & MacMillan. ISBN 0-7171-2121-6.
• Saffer, David (2004), Bobby Collins: The Wee Barra, Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-3176-5