Give me the job, says York City's Sam Collins

Sam Collins: Believes he has served his apprenticeship.

Collins has been acting as interim manager at Bootham Crescent for the past month, following the dismissal of Martin Gray.

The 41-year-old only arrived at the club in the summer to take on youth team responsibilities.

Now he has had the taste of the top job, the former Hull City and Huddersfield Town defender is chomping at the bit.

When asked if he would want to take the job full-time, Collins said: “I’d love to do it.

“I think I’ve done my apprenticeship, if you want to call it that, in terms of coaching at different levels and doing different roles.

“I’m probably getting to an age now where I’d like to have a crack at being manager of a club and this is a really good one to have the opportunity to do that at.

“I’ve spoken to the chairman two or three times and he’s been really positive with me in the conversations we’ve had.

“They are just letting me get on with it and I’m really enjoying it.”

Collins has previously been in caretaker charge at former club Hartlepool and says he is well-accustomed to the fire-fighting role that it entails.

“I’ve done this caretaker role three or four times before,” he said. “I’ve been assistant, first-team coach before and I was doing that last season at Bradford City so I’ve got a lot of experience in terms of being around senior players.”

This weekend offers the Minstermen some respite from their National League North commitments, with an FA Cup second round qualifier at home to Ashton Athletic.

Collins knows York have not won a game on a Saturday afternoon since March 10 so today’s tussle with a side plying their trade three divisions lower down the pyramid offers a golden chance to shake that particular monkey off their backs.