An incredible playing career which saw goalkeeper Adam Collin face training ground thunderbolts from Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer, celebrate two Wembley wins and make memorable penalty shootout saves was launched in the most modest of settings.
“We were playing for Castletown under-11s against Pategill, a local (Penrith) derby down by the swimming pool,” recalls recently retired Collin, who hails from Great Salkeld.
“I didn’t know any scouts were there watching but after the game a Blackburn Rovers scout came up to my dad and said ‘I was impressed with your son, would he like to come down and have a trial?’.”
Collin, by then a graduate of Irwin Wallace’s Castletown “nappy squad”, said: “I was always sport mad ever since I could hold a cricket bat or catch a football. I started off in goal.
“I loved diving around and catching the balls and it just took off from there.”
Blackburn were Premier League winners under manager Kenny Dalglish a year before young Collin began making weekly trips to their Brockhall training ground where Tim Flowers and a young Shay Given were the top senior stoppers.
After that “unbelievable” initial experience, Collin moved to Newcastle United for two seasons before finishing his GCSEs and starting full-time with the Magpies.
“They were always in and around the (Premier League) top four, qualifying for the Champions League. It was a really good place to be,” said Collin.
“(Goalkeepers) Shay Given and Steve Harper were fantastic guys to work with. You also trained with the likes of Alan Shearer, Gary Speed, Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy, Nolberto Solano — household Premier League names, and some fantastic people.”
Of facing Shearer in training, he remembered: “I didn’t save too many! He was clinical in front of goal and just a great guy.
“When you’re 16, 17 or 18, you’re always nervous and slightly in awe when you see people like Alan Shearer walking down the corridor but he always stopped to say ‘hello’. He knew your name as well, which I thought was really good, and then on the training ground he was just a role model.
“He never took his foot off the gas. He wanted to score whether it was a shooting drill or a small-sided game, he just wanted to hit the back of the net, so it was a real test when you came up against him.”
Collin was named in a Newcastle’s Champions League squad, watching from the sidelines in 2002 away to a Juventus team featuring Edgar Davids and Alessandro Del Piero, whose brace secured a 2-0 victory.
“At the time it all just flows but now you look back on it and think ‘bloody hell’,” said Collin. “Going with Sir Bobby (Robson) and sitting next to him on the bench. You don’t take it all in at that time, but when you look back on it now it’s pretty amazing.”
After breaking an ankle, Collin was replaced as third choice keeper by fellow Cumbrian Tony Caig. He was loaned to Doncaster Rovers late into their League 2 championship-winning season before joining Workington AFC and playing more than 200 times.
“That was the best thing I ever did,” he said. “It gave me the foundations to really build my career on.”
After impressing in a pre-season friendly against Carlisle United, Collin signed for the Blues. In 2010, he made two penalty shootout saves in front of a bumper Brunton Park crowd against Leeds United to book a Football League Trophy final Wembley appearance.
Despite losing 4-1 against Southampton in front of 76,000 fans, United returned to the national stadium in the same competition showpiece a year later, Collin keeping a clean sheet as the Cumbrians beat Brentford 1-0.
“It was a great day,” he said. “We prepared right; slightly differently — we didn’t do the Wembley tour and the rest of it —we just travelled, trained, stayed overnight, went to the final and smashed it.”
After joining Rotherham, Collin won at Wembley again, in 2014, saving two penalties in a play-off final shootout win which took his new side into the Championship during a “special” spell which brought “big games, big crowds, big stadiums” in that higher division.
Collin moved to Notts County and rejoined Carlisle before switching, latterly, to Kettering Town and Basford United. He founded his flourishing AC1 goalkeeping academy and was recently appointed Mansfield Town’s head of academy goalkeeping.
Collin, now aged 37, has also given loyal service to Nunwick Cricket Club.
And, reflecting on his football career, he said: “It’s been more than I ever thought it would be. I wanted to play at the highest level possible.
“When you start, you never know where it’s going to end up.
“To play more than 600 games professionally and semi-professionally has been unbelievable, with three Wembley appearances thrown in there as well to top it off.”
