Wigan Athletic v Barnsley FC: A confession from Neill Collins regarding his Reds' starting line-up

As it stands, there are mitigating factors for the Reds chief, mostly injuries and assessing his players and assimilating new signings into not just the club, but the demands of League One.

His transfer business is hopefully not completed either.

Collins said: "In any team, you want to start seeing seven, eight, nine names on the teamsheet regularly and things starting to improve.

"Josh Benson is just back, Adam Phillips has started one league game (after suspension) and there's Mael (De Gevigney) as well. You can go through a number of those things.

"We are nowhere near being able to say this is our regular starting 11. Until that happens, we will continue to work hard to get to that point as quick as we can.”

Some early-season disruption helps to partly explain the club's mixed start. Equally, Collins has been in the game long enough to know that he is being judged constantly.

He continued: "Every time we compete on the pitch, we are all getting judged whether it is players, me or us as a group.

"I think there have been some really positive signs in the first four league games and we have seen some really good stuff - some in more games, less in others. It will continue like that and I couldn't give any time limits on it."

In terms of one player in particular, Collins is hoping that patience proves a virtue among supporters.

The individual in question is French centre-back Mael de Givegney, who had a torrid full debut against Oxford United last weekend.

The former Nimes player was taken off after just 37 minutes in the 3-1 defeat, which saw him concede an early penalty and then be booked for a reckless tackle.

Collins commented: "He has reacted in the right way and has certainly impressed me in terms of how he trains.

"He trains with what we would probably call a British mentality in trying to block shots and head balls. That was almost his undoing last week, he wanted to be all those things and maybe got over-eager.

"People remind me that Mads (Andersen) went through his fair share of ups and downs to become a £4m centre-back that he is.

"We just need to be mindful that Mael is a young centre-back and it's part of his progress."